


Glass

by BellamyTaft



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Abuse, Characters kept as prisoners for the duration, Gen, Horror, Kidnapping, Mind Games, Psychological Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-02
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2018-08-28 14:38:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 63
Words: 222,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8450248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BellamyTaft/pseuds/BellamyTaft
Summary: Seto wakes up trapped in a room with a glass wall, and is told by Pegasus, his so-called host, that he is there to provide Pegasus with company. With no way out but cooperation, Seto struggles to find an escape while playing Pegasus's latest game.





	1. Chapter 1

Seto sat on the bed and stared at the glass wall in front of him. The only door in the narrow room was to the bathroom, which meant that there had to be a hidden door somewhere else. Seto decided it was the glass wall. The glass wasn't sealed around the edges like most windows were, but the edges went into gaps in the concrete walls. It must have been designed to open into the ceiling.

And that meant that Seto wouldn't be able to get out. It was the only way in or out of the small, starkly white room, and he could do nothing but stare at it.

Seto didn't know why they—whomever they were—had taken his shoes or switched out his clothing. The new set was similar to his last, only without the trench coat and accessories that typically accompanied the outfit. It wasn't the same though. The new set was silk, which made it fall into the category of pajamas rather than day wear.

Nothing in the room would help him. The bed was bolted to the cement floor, cold and rough under his bare feet. Beside the bed was a side table, also attached to the floor. A bookcase was mounted to the wall a few feet away, empty but for three books, one in French, one in Russian, and one in Spanish.

As tragically empty as the bedroom, the bathroom held nothing of significance, not even a shower curtain or curtain rod. He had found a razor, hardly a weapon, but thought-provoking.

And finally, there was the small door that wasn't really a door, but more of an access point in the glass. It was at the bottom, just a small panel cut from the glass that had hinges and a handle to allow it to be opened. It also locked from the other side, just a simple latch like the ones that locked a toilet stall, but Seto couldn't reach it and therefore couldn't open it.

No matter. It wasn't like he could fit through a space that small.

The only lights were out in the hallway, on the other side of the glass. The hallway ran too far in either direction for Seto to see the end, with only the light fixtures placed every few feet down the wall to look at.

After searching through the room half a dozen times, Seto knew that he had nothing to do but wait. He supposed that he could have read one of the books—he spoke Spanish and Russian—but was more concerned with the why of his situation than anything else. Reading would be an insufficient distraction, and he worried that he might miss something if he picked up a book.

He leaned back against the wall, concrete like the floor, only the walls were painted white, just like the bed frame and the bookshelf. Wearing all black made him stand out against the flat white, and he almost considered pulling the blanket over his lap to cover what he could. He was thankful that the blanket was thick, because a chill had found its way into his spine and had settled there since he had woken up. The room was frigid and Seto wasn't wearing enough to keep warm.

Seto closed his eyes and ignored the camera staring down at him. It had been the first thing he noticed, and the easiest to ignore. The glass cage was a fairly obvious sign that he was going to be observed, so whoever had brought him into the cage might have been looking through the camera's eye while Seto explored his tight allotment of space.

This set up was too elaborate to have been anything but meticulously planned. There wouldn't be a clear or easy way to get out of this sort of set up. He needed time, and that would only be earned from cooperating to Seto's limit.

It had to be about KaibaCorp. Everything was about Seto's work, well, that or a card game, but despite the rather extravagant attempts people had made to take something from Seto using playing cards as a weapon, nothing had come close to the glass cage Seto found himself trapped inside. In Seto's past experience with being kidnapped, his kidnappers had never really restricted his body. While Pegasus had kept Seto in one of his dungeons, the door hadn't been locked. It was Seto's soul, or at least that was what Muto's squad had told him, that had been trapped. And when Gozaburo reappeared during Battle City, it had been Seto's mind that was locked away while his body was resting unrestrained in one of his pods. Dartz used a method similar to Pegasus in trapping souls.

But Seto never found himself tied up or locked in a room. This was different, and that made Seto anxious. If his kidnapper wanted Seto dead, then he had the chance to do so while Seto was unconscious. And creating this cage was unnecessary if the person or people who kidnapped him had any interest in hurting Seto.

It was too expensive of a set up to have been for ransom, too clean to have been revenge. Seto couldn't think of any reason someone would want him here, like this. It had to mean that Seto was wanted alive, for himself and his mind, and maybe the hold on KaibaCorp. He didn't see how they could hurt him with the barrier keeping him stuck.

"Are you hungry?"

The voice came through a speaker, garbled and crackled, but Seto hadn't seen any speakers. It must have been a part of the camera, which was the only thing in the room Seto hadn't been able to get a closer look at.

"Starved," he said, although hunger was nowhere near his priorities. The hatch on the door must have been for food or clothing to come through, which meant that someone would have to bring it to him.

"I'll be right down," the voice said.

With the speakers as fuzzy as they were, Seto couldn't make out any indicators of who the voice might have belonged to. He could wait. He had to wait.

Seto scooted his feet up on the bed so he could slip them under the blanket. He was barefoot, which only made the cold worse. The lack of shoes made Seto feel more vulnerable than anything else, too exposed and too naked, although the rest of his body was covered.

He watched the glass wall and waited for someone to show. He didn't have a clock to gauge the time passing, and he didn't know what the voice from the speaker considered "right down" to mean. It probably took the time to make the food into account, and possibly the walk to Seto's cell. Seto assumed that he was underground, but had no way to verify the assumption or to disprove it.

Seto caught a flash of red at the edge of the glass after a few minutes, and then heard the speaker crackle back on. It was clearer this time.

"Hello, Kaiba-boy."

Seto was on his feet in a second, crossing the small space so that he could confirm that it was Pegasus standing there, carrying a plate and pressing his finger against something on the wall that was out of Seto's sight.

"What is this?" Seto asked. He stood at the glass so that he could see Pegasus clearly, although there must have been a panel on the wall beside the glass that Seto couldn't see, maybe an intercom to control the speaker.

Pegasus gave Seto an exaggerated sigh and pressed something else on the panel before walking over to the center of the glass wall, stopping with the hatch by his feet.

"What's what?"

A dozen possible answers floated through Seto's mind, but he settled with what he felt was the most pressing.

"This," he said while giving the glass a little knock.

"Glass, Kaiba-boy. I thought you'd be familiar with it."

"Why am I here?"

"Now, are you talking figuratively? Because I've always believed-"

Seto turned around and took a step away from Pegasus, although there really was nowhere in the room he could escape to. Escaping would be pointless though, because he needed answers, although not the vague nothings Pegasus was throwing his way.

"Literally. What am I doing here?"

"I brought you here. You said you were hungry?"

"Why did you bring me here?" Seto asked. He realized that Pegasus wasn't going to give him any information unless it was specifically requested, so it seemed a round of twenty questions was in order. He turned back around to face the glass.

"To keep me company, although, I have to say, you aren't being very polite."

"Why the hell should I be polite? You've kidnapped me and locked me in some freak show of a dungeon."

"If you'll recall, this is actually a much nicer accommodation than your brother received back during that little tournament of mine. Well, not his first room, which he broke a window to escape from. Really, you should be thanking me for giving you such a pleasant space to live in."

Seto started to speak, but Pegasus cut him off with the wave of a hand. "Oh! And you should be polite because you're in there and I'm out here. You know it's rude to curse at your host?"

The chills that ran up Seto's spine kept him from speaking for a moment. He didn't know if it was a result of Pegasus's dialogue, or his feet on the concrete, but it took a second for Seto to be able to go on.

"So what do you want this time?"

Pegasus frowned and cocked his head, resulting in his hair falling from behind his shoulder. "I told you. I want your companionship. You should really listen when adults are talking, Kaiba-boy."

Running his fingers back through his hair, Seto huffed. If Pegasus liked to see Seto riled up, then the best thing Seto could do was to stay calm and think through his actions and words to ensure that they would have the least effect on Pegasus's amusement.

"No one wants my companionship."

"Which just means I can hog it all for myself."

Pegasus knelt to unlock the hatch, sliding the plate through before closing it again. Seto hardly gave the plate a glance since he wasn't actually hungry and didn't care what Pegasus had brought him.

"And I'm supposed to believe that you built all this," Seto said with a gesture to the room, "-and kidnapped me just for conversation?"

"I'm an eccentric man with eccentric tastes. You can hardly fault me for owning my flaws."

"I don't believe you."

"You've known me for quite a few years now. I assume you've experienced my ecc-"

"Pegasus."

With an irritating smile, Pegasus folded his hands together and took a step up to the glass.

"Believe what you want to. It's not like I won't just prove it to you later on. I didn't bring you a drink. There's a cup in your bathroom, so you can get water from the tap."

"People are going to notice that I'm gone."

Pegasus laughed. "You're all over the news. For someone who believes that people dislike his company, your disappearance certainly causes an uproar."

"Why can't I remember what happened?"

"A side effect of the drug I had to use to sedate you. I think that you'll remember it all eventually."

So not only did Pegasus kidnap him, but he took away part of his memory as well. If there was any way to have made the situation worse, Pegasus had just managed to do so.

And there was the more pressing question, the one that Seto wanted to ask but knew would be broaching on dangerous territory. The last thing that he remembered was driving somewhere with Mokuba. Something in his mind told him that more came after that, but it was all just gone. But Mokuba had been with him at some point that day, whatever day it had been. For all Seto knew, he had been dropping Mokuba at a friend's house or at school.

If Mokuba wasn't already in Pegasus's castle, Seto didn't want to provoke Pegasus into bringing him along. Pegasus didn't have a good track record of keeping Mokuba out of his schemes.

"So what now?" Seto asked. "I keep you company until you get bored of me? Then what?"

"Kaiba-boy, don't be like that. I highly doubt that I will get bored of you. We're going to be good friends."

"Friends who only talk through a glass wall and a glitchy speaker system?"

"Play nice and in a year or two, we'll talk about upgrading your living quarters."

"A year or two?"

Pegasus tugged on the cuff of his sleeve and revealed a watch, giving it a brief glance before righting the sleeve. He stepped back to lean against the wall and cross his arms.

"For some reason, no one from Duelist Kingdom reported me to the authorities. Maybe it was the magic, but I took your brother without the use of any. You even had witnesses to corroborate any claims you might have thrown at me. But you didn't. I doubt I'll get so lucky again."

Ignoring Pegasus's attempt to change the subject from the duration of Seto's imprisonment to the foolishness of not turning in Pegasus three years back, Seto focused on what he was really saying.

"So since we let you get away with your crimes once, you're going to keep me here even if you get bored, just so I don't turn you in this time around?"

"Why are you so focused on the idea that I will become bored of you?"

Seto crossed his arms to mimic Pegasus's position. "It's not like I can be interesting in a display case."

"Actually, I find you very interesting right now. Watching you tiptoe around any subject that might lead to your brother is fascinating. You're not asking the questions you really want to ask, and you are trying to stay rational enough to get information out of me. But I'm an open book, Kaiba-boy. Ask away."

"Did you hurt Mokuba?"

"Of course not. He is at home, asleep in his bed, dreaming about finding you and making sure you're safe. Okay, he might not be asleep or in bed. This has been a stressful day for him."

Pegasus's words held little value, but Seto found himself comforted by them nonetheless. It was a better mental image, and one that Seto wanted to believe. If he thought Pegasus would concede, Seto would have asked for proof.

"You run a business," Seto said.

"I do."

"So I assume that even though I'm here, you won't be seeking my company often."

"I work nine to five, just like most of the workforce. Fine, eight to five. But I do so from home. If you need anything, just wave at the camera. Someone will notice."

Which meant that Pegasus had people helping with this whole ruse, and more people meant more chances of a mistake. Pegasus had to have taken that into account and paid them more than Seto could offer.

"And if I don't cooperate with you?"

"How are you going to fight back? Throw yourself against the glass? Off yourself with the razor I left for you?"

"I could refuse to talk to you."

"You could."

"No threats?" Seto asked.

"Why should I threaten you? I think you can see your situation perfectly well. I could threaten Mokuba, but I really have no interest in bringing him into our budding relationship. I could withhold food, but I get the feeling that you will probably do that to yourself, and I'll have a harder time trying to convince you to eat anything I offer. I could leave you in the dark with nothing to do but wait for me to show up and provide a few minutes of respite from the cold darkness. I could just leave you here and never come back. You're out of the way and no one will ever come looking here for you. Is that what you want, Kaiba-boy? Would you like me to play a villain? No?"

Pegasus smirked and combed his fingers through his hair. It fell over the eye that used to be gold, and Seto wondered if it was a hollow socket or if he had replaced it with glass.

"I trust that you are smart enough to understand your situation. This is only as miserable as you make it for yourself. I intend to be accommodating and polite, even if you act out. You're not going anywhere, Seto."

Oddly, the use of his name was the most threatening thing Pegasus had said in his entire monologue. This wasn't a fight because Seto couldn't strike back. He didn't have the weight of his influence behind him. It wasn't a game because Pegasus had taken away all of Seto's pieces.

This was Pegasus's world, and Seto wasn't Kaiba here, just Seto.

"Okay," Seto said. "Let's assume I believe you, that you are really so lonely that you have to resort to kidnapping to find company. Why me?"

"I've always liked you, Kaiba-boy." Seto had never been so relieved to hear the nickname. "You are smart, spirited, and stubborn. I always regretted that our business relationship never worked out."

"Instead of asking for a license to my software, you kidnapped Mokuba and tried to have me killed. I was not the issue."

"I never said that you were. But we are going to put that in the past and start getting along."

"You still didn't answer."

"Fishing for compliments?" Pegasus asked. He checked his watch again. "Ah. We'll have to pick this up later."

Without another word, Pegasus stepped back over to the hidden panel on the wall. If it was really the intercom, then once he turned it off, Seto wouldn't be able to talk to him or get any further answers. And he had one that he really needed to know.

"Wait."

Pegasus paused inches away from pressing his finger to the wall. "Yes?"

Seto took a deep breath and tried to think of a way to ask his question without sounding like a frightened child.

"You called this situation a relationship. You just meant conversation, right?"

The hand not reaching for the intercom pressed against the glass, like Pegasus was reaching out to Seto. "Just conversation, Kaiba-boy. You're not my type."

Seto nodded at the button was pushed, and the crackling from the speaker stopped. Pegasus left his hand on the glass for a second longer before waving two fingers in a rough goodbye.

With the layout of the hall and the glass, Seto couldn't see him for more than a second before he disappeared. It left the plate of food as Seto's sole object of attention, and he stared at the sandwich and chips longer than he would have outside of this situation.

He had always known that Pegasus was insane, but even this was a bit much. But if everything was true, then Mokuba was okay, and all Seto had to do was talk to Pegasus whenever he visited. If Pegasus was truly an open book like he claimed, then something he said or did had to give Seto a way out. While patience and passivity were far from Seto's strong suits, relying on them was seeming like his only option.

Or finding a way to trick Pegasus into letting him out. If Pegasus wanted to play mind games and tell lies about what was really going on, Seto could play that game.


	2. Chapter 2

Seto had tried to sleep, but the room was too cold for him to get comfortable, and the knowledge that he was being watched kept him too alert. He also didn't know when Pegasus would be coming back, and the glass wall left him with no privacy to avoid being creeped up on.

So after checking the room one more time and determining that there were no hidden escape paths, he grabbed the book that was written in Russian and read it through. It was a copy of Maxim Gorky's Mother, which Seto hadn't read before, but after reading it, decided that he could have gone his entire life without reading it and been perfectly content. It had been a while, however, since he had put his Russian to practice, so translating the book kept him occupied where the subject and content failed to.

By the time Pegasus came back, Seto had put Mother back on the bookshelf and reclaimed the spot on the bed. The room seemed to have gotten colder, and even the thick blanket was doing a poor job at preventing the chills than had taken over Seto's skin.

"Good afternoon, Kaiba-boy," Pegasus said after a brief stop at the panel on the wall. "You had told me you were starved, but you only ate the chips?"

The chips had been in a sealed bag, so if Pegasus had tampered with the sandwich, the same couldn't have been said for the chips. Seto had double checked the seal for any holes, no matter how small, but found the bag airtight.

"I'm sure it's not the first time you ruined someone's appetite."

"That's fine. I brought your dinner. Could you bring over your plate?"

Nothing on the plate Pegasus carried was sealed, so Seto doubted he would eat any of it, but he wanted more information, and Pegasus had the ability to walk away. So Seto forced himself to get out from under the blanket and put his feet on the floor. He had left the plate on the bookshelf, and picking it up, he walked it over to the hatch.

Pegasus traded the plates and left the old one on the floor. When Pegasus's hand reached through, Seto debated making a grab at it, but didn't know how he would threaten Pegasus from that position. Pegasus couldn't reach anything that might have been the switch for the door, so even if he agreed to open it in exchange for Seto not snapping his wrist, Seto couldn't actually make him do it.

Seto opted to return to the bed after finishing the switch.

"Is something wrong?" Pegasus asked. From his tone, Seto inferred that Pegasus was referring to Seto's withdrawal and not to his anger at being kidnapped.

"It is freezing in here."

"I have the heat on."

After he spoke, Pegasus looked up toward the ceiling, but then let out an "ahh" quiet enough that the intercom couldn't catch it, but Seto could see the word on his lips.

"The vent is out here," Pegasus said, gaze still on the ceiling.

"You didn't hire a professional to design your dungeon?"

Pegasus knelt back down to the hatch and lifted it. He looked around the hallway for a few seconds before standing, but making sure to keep his leg against the hatch door to hold it open.

"Don't want me to suffocate?" Seto asked. He was annoyed that he hadn't noticed the lack of an air vent in his room before Pegasus.

"This is hardly funny," Pegasus said. "I spent a lot of money on this room, and to think I overlooked something as crucial as air circulation is a travesty."

"Easily remedied by letting me out."

Seto tried to adjust himself to look as put together as he could while sitting on the bed. He crossed his legs under the blanket and leaned back against the headboard even though it was just as cold as everything else in the room.

"You'll have to give me a second to run make a call."

Pegasus didn't lock the hatch when he left. So long as it wasn't locked, Seto supposed that he could hold it open to allow air to pass through. Keeping it propped open wouldn't be a permanent solution. If Pegasus had installed a lock, then he wanted it to be kept secured.

When Pegasus came back, he had a wooden chair with him. He used it to hold open the hatch door, positioning it carefully in front of the glass wall.

"This will have to do for now. I'll get a more permanent solution tomorrow."

"Are we on your island?" Seto asked.

Pegasus glanced up from the chair, pushing away the plate with Seto's untouched sandwich to get it in the spot he wanted. "We are."

"Then don't keep me in here. It's not like I can get off an island so far off shore without drawing your attention."

"I want your company, Kaiba-boy. If I have to chase you down all the time, that wouldn't be worth my effort."

"So I'm basically a leashed pet?"

"Basically," Pegasus said. He finished with the chair and inched back, like he was waiting for the chair to slip or the hatch door to slam back down. But it held, so he looked over at Seto.

"Did you start any of the books?" Pegasus asked.

"I don't speak French."

The confusion on Pegasus's face seemed genuine enough. He took the same spot he had during his last visit, against the wall and under one of the light fixtures.

"It's the language of love! Everyone should be able to speak it. Why haven't you learned?"

"Gozaburo didn't do much business in France," Seto said.

"It's been years since his death, silly boy."

Seto glared. "I'm busy. Being fluent in five languages is already more than enough."

Pegasus inclined his head as though conceding to Seto's point. "Even so," he said. "It's a good language to know."

"If I'm going to be your prisoner for the rest of my life, then I don't see any reason to have learned it. It would have been a waste of time."

"You shouldn't call yourself a prisoner."

"Then what term am I allowed?"

Shrugging, Pegasus said, "You're allowed whatever term you'd like. I just wish you wouldn't use that one."

"This is the second time you've held me prisoner. I've woken up in a cage both times. Is this your fetish or something?"

"Don't sexualize this. I told you that you are only here to provide me with company."

"Then what should I make of this?" Seto said. He hoped that the question would help gather new information because he wouldn't have asked otherwise. "If you just want me for company, you wouldn't keep me far enough away that no one would ever find me. I'm sure there would be more convenient places to have stored me."

"Maybe I just get lonely in little spurts."

"Join a book club."

"Would you like to start one?"

"I'm not cooperating with you."

Pegasus smiled. "You seem chatty enough."

Seto felt it was time for a subject change because he didn't want Pegasus asking more about why Seto was so talkative, although it was fairly obvious that he was digging for information. So since Pegasus had brought it up earlier, Seto felt relatively safe heading back to the subject of Mokuba.

"Are you really never going to let me go?"

"I have no plans to."

"Why do you think I'm going to play nice when it means I'll never see my brother again? Never return to my life?"

Pegasus held up a finger that seemed less like a silencing gesture than an 'I'm about to make a point' gesture.

"I never said you wouldn't see your brother again."

Seto leaned forward, unwilling to jump off the bed in anger before he made certain that he confirmed what Pegasus meant. The room was still cold and Seto didn't think any heat would come through the little opening Pegasus had made. He needed to confirm before making himself more miserable and making a spectacle of himself.

"Mokuba doesn't deserve this. You don't deserve Mokuba."

Pegasus raised his eyebrow, or maybe eyebrows, Seto couldn't see both, and lifted a palm in a motion to the room Seto was trapped inside. "I never said I would do this to him. You're making some brash assumptions."

"Then what should I assume?" Seto said. He still didn't lean back because he thought that at any moment, the anger would take over and he would need to be able to spring to his feet.

"Maybe after a while, I'll trust you with a phone, or let you video chat with little Mokuba. Maybe I'd let him visit or let you visit him. Maybe I'll bring you pictures or just keep you updated on his well-being. Maybe he will want to live with me to stay close to you. How many more scenarios should I come up with to prove that you have no idea what I'm capable of or willing to do? This isn't supposed to be torture, Kaiba-boy. It's like I said. You can make this as miserable as you want to be."

"I don't want you near Mokuba."

A little shrug from Pegasus and the topic faded. Since Seto didn't like where it was headed, he let it go in favor of a better, easier subject.

"It really is freezing in here."

"I don't think I can fit a blanket through there," Pegasus said, giving the hatch a small point. He sounded upset about it.

"But the whole wall raises. Just lift it up."

"I figured you would catch on to how it works. But we haven't built up enough trust with each other for that sort of thing."

Seto snorted and leaned back, sticking his hands under the blanket since they had started to numb.

"I'm going to take a guess that your more permanent solution to my lack of air circulation is to cut holes in the glass, high enough that I can't reach them. To get enough air, and possibly the heat through, those holes will have to be either big or numerous. Or, you could cut one big enough that you can run the duct from the air vent down and into the room, guaranteeing the heat comes in and that I have enough air. Do the last option and you'll have a hole large enough to put a blanket through."

"But also one that you could slip through."

"Not if you run a duct through it."

"Then the glass door can't open whenever I finally decide you're ready to get out."

That was information Seto tucked away to mull over later.

"I didn't say to fix the duct in place. This ceiling is at least twelve feet, so I can't reach it to knock it out or to climb through any opening you might put up there. Don't attach the duct and you can slide it out whenever you need to raise the glass."

"I will think it over tonight. Let's get to the subject of you eating."

"I'm not hungry."

"But you ate the one item I gave you that was sealed. Does that mean you only want me to bring you processed foods? TV dinners or instant noodles you can cook in hot water from your sink?"

The idea was unappealing, and very likely a threat, although Pegasus made it sound like it was what Seto had asked for.

"You're on the other side of the glass," Pegasus said. "I'm not opening the wall, so even if I drugged you, what would I get out of it?"

"You said that I have no idea what you are thinking. And you have proven that you can come up with a myriad of examples to demonstrate your own points. I'll leave it to you."

"Would you like me to taste test all your food for you? I could treat you like some snotty prince who needs a slave to test the food for poison. Shall I call you Prince Seto? Give you gold and chocolates? Rain diamonds down on you? 'Oh, my little prince, allow me to die for you!'"

Seto flipped off Pegasus in a quick motion, then put his hand back under the blanket. It was immature, but Pegasus was being immature, so Seto felt justified in the action.

"I'm not poisoning your food or drugging it. It's just a salad. Cross my heart."

"We haven't built up that level of trust."

Pegasus chuckled and checked his watch. "I'll tell you what, Kaiba-boy. Eat your food. If I poisoned it or drugged it, I swear I'll let you go."

It was Seto's turn to chuckle. "I have no way to enforce your promise."

"I swear on my late wife's grave. There's nothing in your food but a touch of razzle dazzle."

Seto didn't know if that was the name of some weird drug or just Pegasus being ridiculous, but he was hungry and if Pegasus was really going to keep Seto trapped away forever, starvation would not be the way Seto would kill himself.

But it was too cold to get out of the bed.

"I'll think about it," Seto said.

"Then I suppose I'll have to accept that answer for now. But really," Pegasus said, bending forward to pick up the abandoned sandwich. He took a bite out of it and wrinkled his nose. "Not so good after a couple of hours, but just because the jelly congealed and the bread got crusty. I'll make a different kind tomorrow."

Seeing Pegasus take the bite did help calm Seto's anxiety that Pegasus had poisoned his food. Although, it could have been a very elaborate plan. Pegasus could have left the first meal, maybe even the first few meals, alone so that he could prove his point.

"So I'm going to be here for the rest of my life," Seto said.

"I think we've covered that."

"What am I supposed to do with my now-freed schedule? Nap and wait for you to drop in?"

Seto knew that there was something else missing from the situation. No one just kidnapped one person for the sake of company, especially when the kidnapped person was Seto Kaiba. Last time, it had been SolidVision and KaibaCorp, so Seto knew that Pegasus wanted something, even if he wasn't ready to tell Seto just yet.

"I hate to go back to the pet analogy, but I intend to use a reward system."

"You're going to train me," Seto said, curt and flat.

"Condition? Acclimate to my presence? Reward good behavior so I don't have to punish you acting out?"

"So I'm your dog?"

"I actually think you'd be a cat, little prince, but that's not the idea. The sooner you warm up to me, the more I'll give you to do."

While he wanted to scream and shout and try to crack the glass, he knew that it would get him nowhere. Patience would be his only way out, and Pegasus wasn't in any hurry. Pegasus spoke of a lifetime, so he just had to wait out Seto. And Seto had to wait for Pegasus to trust him in order to get the door raised.

And even then, Pegasus had to know that Seto would try to get away the first chance he received, so he would probably be watched more carefully once he earned his way out of the cage. Waiting for Pegasus to slip up might mean years. And the slip up would have to be large enough to give Seto a chance to get off the island or to contact someone back in Domino.

But, if Seto was really as out of the way as Pegasus claimed, by the time someone made it to the island to rescue him, Pegasus could have locked him away. And then he would probably never be allowed out again.

So he would only get one chance. When he took his chance at getting out, it had to be foolproof.

"Thought of a way to escape me yet?" Pegasus asked.

Seto must have been lost in thought longer than he expected. "I haven't," he said, knowing that Pegasus understood Seto wouldn't have answered anything else.

"If you do think of something, feel free to tell me. I've run through all the scenarios myself. You'll notice that your books are paperback."

Seto had noticed. A hardback, while unlikely, had a better chance of shattering the glass. Seto hadn't tried hitting it with a fist yet, but assumed that Pegasus would have picked a sturdy material that could withstand Seto's strongest effort. He didn't want a failed effort recorded on that camera.

"You are going to let me out of here eventually," Seto said.

"Out of this room yes. It's really up to you."

"Okay, so when I do get out of here, then what?"

"I have a whole wing waiting for you. A full bedroom, bathroom, library, office, kitchenette, the works."

"But I'll be locked in there too?"

"Baby steps, Kaiba-boy."

"And the step after that?"

"We'll discuss it when the time comes," Pegasus said.

Seto slouched into the bed. "I thought you were an open book."

"Those chapters haven't been written yet."

"So not only am I supposed to believe you are the loneliest millionaire in existence, that you kidnapped me for company, and that you built this insane cage to store me in, but you never thought of the endgame?"

"This isn't a game, Kaiba-boy. Notice I'm not pulling out my deck and challenging you."

"It's a term. Don't change the subject."

Pegasus stepped up to the glass, so he was staring down at Seto. If the room had been any warmer, Seto would have done the same. He cursed the cold room and his lack of shoes.

"There is an endgame, but the number of steps it takes for you to get there will depend on you."

"Or you could end this charade and tell me what you really want with me."

Pegasus rolled his eye. "We're back to this? This is what I want. You, talking to me and keeping me company."

He checked his watch.

"I don't see much else we can talk about," Seto said.

"How about we get to know each other? Play the favorites game?"

"No."

"We'll alternate. What's your favorite color?"

Seto closed his eyes and lowered his faced toward his lap. Out of all the things he had expected when he woke up kidnapped, playing such a childish game had never crossed into his thoughts. But Pegasus was the game master and Seto still hadn't finished the rule book.

"I don't have a favorite color."

"Everyone does."

"I don't."

"Fine then. But it is your turn to ask me."

"This isn't my sort of game."

"Why? Because it doesn't involve attacking anyone?"

Seto kept forcing himself to avoid looking at Pegasus. He thought better with his eyes closed, and they had started to ache from having his contacts in for too long.

Just because he wasn't throwing things, shouting, or making threats he couldn't back up did not mean that he had contented himself to be Pegasus's dog. He had established that there wasn't a way out of the room without the door being opened. So Pegasus just had to open the door.

"How about your favorite book then?"

"Lyrical Ballads."

"Isn't that poetry?"

"It is."

"I think you're lying to me, Kaiba-boy," Pegasus said, pouting.

"Does it matter if I'm lying? I'm talking to you, aren't I?"

Seto could hear Pegasus's laugh come through the garbled speaker, as well as through the opening of the hatch. It was distorting, and Seto wished Pegasus would just turn off the intercom. For the money he spent on Seto's display case, he should have sprung for a better speaker, and Seto was done pushing for information.

"Of course it matters. We have to trust each other if you want to move to your wing."

"You can't be serious," Seto said. He had been thinking it, but hadn't intended on saying anything. Asking for Pegasus to let him out would come too close to begging if he wasn't careful.

"Trust is crucial-"

"No. You can't actually keep me here."

"No? What's stopping me?"

Lifting his head, Seto glared at Pegasus, actually biting down on his tongue to keep from saying anything he would end up regretting. It had only been a day. He couldn't lose it already, not to Pegasus.

But Seto didn't have an answer. Aside from morals, which Pegasus had already proven he lacked, and outside influence, which Seto had no control over or knowledge of, there really was nothing. Seto couldn't do anything, and for all he knew, Pegasus had managed to get him here without anyone knowing what happened.

"I don't suppose asking nicely will make you come to your senses?" Seto said.

"I doubt you could ask nicely if you wanted to."

"That's not an answer."

"No. You're staying here."

Seto set his jaw and leveled his glare on Pegasus.

"Then get me another fucking blanket."

Seto was sure he imagined the "tsk" from Pegasus, but whatever Pegasus had to say would meet uninterested ears. The only thing Seto had that Pegasus wanted was conversation, and he wasn't inclined to give it to him unless he started getting something in exchange.

"I'll see if I can find one small enough to fit through. Getting the heat running through tomorrow will help."

Seto's mouth remained closed. He slipped down so he could lay his head against the pillow, signaling that he was done talking. It wasn't like he could make Pegasus leave him alone, leaving Seto with the only option to make Pegasus as bored as Seto had been the entire day.

The speaker remained on, and Seto counted the seconds until he heard it crackle off. He made it to a hundred and eighty-seven before his room fell silent. He hadn't closed his eyes, so he watched as the lights dimmed, staying on just enough that he had to squint to make out any shapes. He didn't have any intentions of eating, and trying to get through the book in Spanish with the lights down would be more trouble than Seto felt up for.

He gave sleeping another shot, although he must have stayed awake for over an hour, too worried that moving would release all the heat he had been saving up.

By the time he did fall asleep, he still didn't understand the game he was caught up in.


	3. Chapter 3

"Good morning, Kaiba-boy."

Seto hadn't heard the speaker turn on, which meant he must have managed to fall asleep at some point. He felt groggy and his eyes burned from sleeping in his contacts, and then there was that nagging sensation in his stomach urging him to eat.

"I don't suppose you happened to kidnap my glasses," Seto asked. He stayed under the blanket because the air in the room was stinging at his nose and cheekbones, and he didn't feel like giving Pegasus the courtesy of sitting up. He did roll over to stare at the painted ceiling.

"You wear glasses?"

"I have contacts in. I understand that you're really only interested in my voice, but I'd prefer not to be blind as well as caged."

After a short pause, Pegasus said, "What's your prescription?"

Seto told him and requested glasses rather than contacts. Contacts would have to be replaced frequently and were mostly so people didn't know what terrible eyesight he had. If the rest of his life would be talking to Pegasus, Seto didn't see a point in putting on airs or worrying about his lack of peripheral vision.

"I need you to go into your bathroom for a bit."

That got Seto to sit up.

"Why?"

"I'm bringing people in to fix your air circulation issue."

"That's your issue."

"Why don't you tell me that after a while with this little hatch closed, hm?"

Rubbing his eyes in hopes of reliving the burning, Seto said, "You wouldn't bring people in who didn't know I was here."

"They know. I'd just rather you didn't talk to them."

"Jealous?"

"Now please."

"If I don't?"

"You seem quite insistent on trying to make me a villain here," Pegasus said. He had another plate with him, although the only things on it were a package of toaster pastries and an apple. "I'm not going to threaten you. If you do go into the bathroom until they are done, I'll bring you some more books."

"I'd rather you threatened me than treat me like a misbehaving toddler."

"Then maybe you shouldn't misbehave."

"Next time, kidnap someone less abrasive."

"Are you going to go into the bathroom or not?"

Pegasus had already started moving the chair so that he could switch out the two plates, so Seto took the moment Pegasus's attention wasn't focused on him to decide if he would cooperate in exchange for more books. Seto didn't much care about the trade. He actually would rather be out of the way when the people came down to cut the glass, because it would keep him from making any embarrassing displays. The men wouldn't let him go, but Seto didn't think he would be able to keep himself from asking.

He took the blanket with him, stopping to grab the sealed bag of Pop-Tarts. The bathroom was hardly used, so Seto didn't see an issue with eating while he was in there. At least that way Pegasus and the camera couldn't watch him.

"Many thanks, little prince," Pegasus said, giving Seto a slight bow.

Seto didn't answer. He wished that the door to the bathroom swung open and closed, just so if he wanted the option of slamming it, it was there. But it was a pocket door that slid out of the wall. There wasn't even a lock on it, although it wasn't like anyone would be walking in on him.

The bathroom was the same length at the bedroom, around ten feet from the shower to the vanity, which left a gap in the middle where Seto sat. He made sure that part of the blanket was under him so he didn't have to sit straight on the concrete. Noises already came from the other room, probably ladders being set into place against the glass. The people Pegasus brought in to help fix the air circulation must have been waiting just outside Seto's field of vision during that entire conversation.

It wouldn't take long to run the vent down as long as Pegasus had people who knew what they were doing. It wasn't hard to cut a hole in glass and run a duct through. So Seto wouldn't need to sit on the floor for much longer.

Seto picked at the Pop-Tart. His body didn't appreciate the slowness of it all, but Seto disliked the artificial strawberry flavor and had to force down each bite. He would have grabbed the apple, but knowing how much Pegasus enjoyed his cartoons, wouldn't have put it past him to have poisoned it.

A screeching noise came from the other room, louder than the crackle from the speaker and obnoxious enough to add to the shivers that were already present from the cold.

Seto took another bite of the Pop-Tart and cringed, but forced another one down quickly after. He needed to really think of some way to get out of this mess. It had only been one day-

No. It had been two. There was a conference. That was where he had taken Mokuba. They went to set up the duel arenas so that the new cards could be demonstrated. Yugi had been one of the duelists invited. His whole Geek Squad was there. No, not the whole Nerd Clan, but Taylor had been absent, and Devlin was in Taylor's usual place.

It was a convention hosted by Pegasus.

Leaving his breakfast and the blanket, Seto got to his feet and threw open the door as dramatically as a pocket door could be opened. The workers all froze, but Pegasus turned to face Seto and gave him an exasperated huff.

"Yes?"

"You hosted that convention just for the sake of kidnapping me?"

Pegasus's face lit up. "You're remembering. That's good. I should have asked if you had any other side effects. I'm afraid I've failed you as a host and must make up for it."

"You're not denying it."

"I'm not," he said, turning to the workers. "He's not stopping you."

They continued fixing the new strip of duct they had brought in, and Seto ignored them in favor of glaring at Pegasus.

"That's ridiculous."

"No, what's ridiculous is that you told your secretary to ignore any calls or messages from me. I could have set up a private meeting otherwise, but you've slighted me at every turn and forced me into drastic measures."

"So this is my fault? There have to be plenty of people in this world foolish enough who would be happy to stay with you. Give a homeless person a home or something. You didn't need to stoop to such an insane-"

"Eccentric."

"-Ludicrous plan just to make someone talk to you."

"You've mistaken me, Seto."

Seto pressed his head against the glass. He hated hearing his name coming from Pegasus. It was too personal, and the tone Pegasus used sounded of a reprimand. It was as though Pegasus had turned Seto's own name into an insult.

"I'm not so desperate that I need just anyone's company. As you can see, I have plenty of people around to chat with. I was exceedingly thoughtful in my decision of who to bring home."

Seto tilted his head to watch the work being done rather than look to Pegasus at the moment. They had progressed fairly well, and the glass had a hole about eighteen inches in diameter, probably the same width as the duct.

"But you knew I would fight you on this."

Pegasus tapped the glass. "Go ahead, goldfish."

With a shove on the glass, Seto pushed away and went back into the bathroom. The cold had won over, or at least that was Seto's excuse to retreat. He didn't bother closing the door, since where he was sitting gave him a view of the work being done. Talking with Pegasus had rid Seto of his hunger, so he left the Pop-Tarts on the floor.

Instead of bothering with Pegasus or watching the workers, Seto closed his eyes and tried to remember the moment he was kidnapped. He needed to know where he had last seen Mokuba, because if Mokuba had been with him, Pegasus likely wouldn't have left him alone.

His memories of it were just gone. He remembered getting the projectors installed and then noticing that the Geek Squad had shown up to cheer on Yugi, but nothing after. Mokuba had just tagged along because it was a weekend and he had nothing better to do. He should have been with Seto the entire time, but maybe he had gone to the bathroom or run off to talk to Yugi at some point and that was when Pegasus grabbed Seto.

It had only been a day and a half since he woke up. The memories would have to come back eventually.

"Kaiba-boy!"

Seto stayed on the bathroom floor. Until that moment, he had forgotten that he had told Pegasus to bring him another blanket, and from the looks of things, he wasn't going to get one. The duct was already being attached, so Seto's plan of shoving the blanket through wasn't going to be used.

"Petulance doesn't suit you, Kaiba-boy. Come out for a moment."

Seto didn't much care for his show of petulance either, but he was trying to prove a point, even if that point had been lost, even to him.

"I have to leave. Shall we part on such nasty terms?"

Thinking of a few nasty terms to throw Pegasus's way, Seto remained on the floor. As soon as the people on the other side of the glass left, Seto could get back in the bed and try to sleep again. It had helped with his memories, and maybe taking a nap would bring back the rest.

When the speaker turned off, Seto assumed that Pegasus had left. The workers were still there, so if he wanted to request their help, he had the opportunity. But, just in case there was a chance of getting on Pegasus's good side and getting out that way, Seto didn't want to take the chance so early. If he didn't talk to the workers now, or maybe even the first few times someone other than Pegasus came down, then that would lead to some manner of trust.

Seto had to assume that Pegasus would never fully trust him. Seto wouldn't have trusted himself in that situation, but he could work with even a slight inkling of trust. He only needed enough for Pegasus to look away at the wrong time, or rather, the right time in Seto's case.

And the fact that none of the men outside the glass wall had even glanced in his direction outside of his minor tirade had proven that Pegasus had their loyalty. After Duelist Kingdom, Seto had experienced how well Pegasus won people over, convincing Seto's board of directors to turn on him, as well as Kemo. It would take more than a few carefully selected words for Seto to steal them for himself.

He moved back to the bed once the new ducting was in place, not bothering to examine it more closely because of the camera tracking his movements. Seto didn't have much of a strategy to get out of the display case, but what little he did have was centered around trust.

And knowledge. He needed his memories back, as well as an actual conversation with Pegasus. He dropped his head back against the wall, exhausted at the thought of it.

Seto ate the apple after a few hours of fighting a losing battle with his stomach. He thought less clearly on an empty stomach, and the caffeine withdrawals had started, which had further hindered Seto's mental processes.

As far as he could tell, there was nothing wrong with the apple. He supposed that for Pegasus to trust him, he needed to display some trust in Pegasus. Eating would be an easy way to start. And if there was anything in the food, Seto could just hide out in the bathroom until the effects wore off.

He managed a nap, although it didn't feel like it lasted for very long and it didn't bring back any more memories. The heat coming through the new duct wasn't as intense as Seto would have liked, but it took the cold edge out of the air. They had cut a few smaller holes up near the ceiling as well, probably Pegasus's idea, horrified at the thought of Seto suffocating. The hatch door had been locked again, and Seto figured that this was his new normal.

The speaker turned on as Pegasus walked into view. He carried a stack of books with him, with a plate balanced on the top of them.

"Good afternoon, Kaiba-boy. Are you getting any heat?"

"Not much."

"But some?"

Seto nodded. He had backed himself into the corner between his headboard and the concrete wall, still under the blanket and using the pillow as a barrier between his shoulder and the concrete. He hadn't found a comfortable position yet, but his current placement was the closest he had gotten.

"You ate something," Pegasus said.

"You didn't poison it."

Pegasus knelt down and opened the hatch, switching out Seto's old plate for the new, and then sliding in the books after. Curiosity won over the cold, and Seto slipped out of the bed to see what the books were.

"You're joking," Seto said, picking up a copy of French for Dummies, hardly giving the other language guides a second glance.

"Not at all. It's a beautiful language. And, if you promise me you'll learn it, I'll let you have these."

Reaching into the chest pocket of his suit, Pegasus pulled out a glasses case. He tapped it against the glass a few times, but didn't move to pass them through.

"Fine. I'll learn French. Give me the glasses."

"Pinky promise?"

"A regular, unchildish promise. But I can't learn French if I can't see the books."

Pegasus gave the glasses over as well, closing the hatch after them. He stood up and straightened out his suit. Instead starting up a conversation with Pegasus, Seto checked to see what he had been brought for dinner. He didn't recognize the dish.

"What is that?" he asked.

"It's a salad. Peas, corn, onion, a touch of peppers, beans, and a few other things. It's served cold, so don't bite in and expect anything warm."

"That doesn't sound very appealing."

"It's not like you'll eat it anyway."

Seto left the books on the floor along with the plate. He sat on the edge of the bed to keep his feet off the concrete and settled his gaze on Pegasus. The chair that had been holding up the hatch was still in the hall, so Pegasus sat on it rather than leaning against the wall.

"You really should start eating," Pegasus said. "You'd be a lot happier, or at least less grouchy, if I could bring you hot meals."

It would have been easy to argue that Pegasus certainly could bring him hot meals, but Seto understood the logic. If he wasn't going to eat the food immediately, then it would chill, and hot foods were rarely appealing cold.

While sitting on the bed, Seto reached up and took out his contacts. Years of wearing them allowed him to do so with precision, and without a case to drop them in, he just put them inside the glasses case. He would probably have to flush them or leave them on a plate since there wasn't a garbage can in the room.

His vision blurred for the moment between taking out the contacts and trading them for his glasses. Well, they weren't his glasses, but Pegasus had picked a set of frames similar to the ones Seto had owned before, thin and black, but large enough that they covered most of Seto's field of vision.

"My, my, Kaiba-boy. You look so scholarly."

"You didn't bring me a blanket."

"I had hoped the heat coming through would help."

"This is still an ice box."

"I'll think of something. Any blanket large enough to do you much good won't fit through."

"Get a chess set."

Pegasus frowned, but seemingly more from curiosity than anything else. "I doubt that will provide you with much warmth."

"I assume you know how to play."

"I do. Why the sudden interest in playing with me?"

Seto looked around his room as a clear motion of his point. "I can't get out of here, but I can beat you at chess."

"I'm sure there's one hanging around here somewhere. But we may not have time for a full game during my visits. It's regretful how little time we have together."

"Then leave it set up. I'm so far out of the way that no one is going to come by, right?"

Pegasus shrugged. "I'll bring one tomorrow night. Where'd you learn to play chess?"

"Watching televised matches."

Opening up about aspects of his past might be the bridge he needed. And it wasn't like he would tell Pegasus anything personal, not without twisting the truth or avoiding the subjects Seto wanted to steer clear of. But giving him little glimpses of irrelevant details might make Pegasus believe that he was breaking through.

"That's surprising. There couldn't have been that many."

"The orphanage home director considered them educational."

"Wasn't the late Mr. Kaiba some sort of champion?"

Seto adjusted his glasses and debated pretending not to have heard Pegasus. Chess wasn't personal, but anything related to Gozaburo could easily cross over into that category.

"He was," Seto eventually said.

Pegasus leaned back and crossed his arms. "Did you admire him?"

"Of course."

"Didn't you kill him?"

Seto snorted and scooted back on the bed, planning to sit back in his spot in the corner. The question had stopped bothering him years ago, although it had in the beginning.

"No."

"Hm," Pegasus said with a nod. "I can't say the world much misses Gozaburo Kaiba."

"Pick a subject other than my father." They had been on it for much longer than Seto was comfortable with.

That drew a more interested "huh" from Pegasus, and got him to lean forward a touch. "Your father? I've never heard you call him as such."

"He was legally my father. I wear his name, live in his house, run his company."

Pegasus's finger came up again in his making-a-point gesture, and his next words were spoken in his sing-song voice.

"You live here now. And you don't have a company."

"What the hell does that mean?"

Seto couldn't stop himself from getting to his feet again. Ignoring the cold because there wasn't anything he could do about it, Seto walked over to the glass to stare down at Pegasus.

"It means that your precious KC is in better hands now."

"Your hands?"

"I bought you out during that convention."

The meaning of the words settled in slowly, and Seto tested them several times over to make certain that he understood them completely.

"So not only did you stage an event to kidnap me, but you simultaneously bought out my company so it would look like I disappeared as a result. Just like Gozaburo did."

"Clever, isn't it, Kaiba-boy? You always did follow in that brute's footsteps, so I doubt too many people would press your disappearance."

"Mokuba would."

Pegasus shrugged. "The voice of a child is easily overlooked."

"So now what? You have me, you have KaibaCorp. Maybe you'll want to move into my house next? Start calling yourself a Kaiba too? Is that what this is really all about? Keep me down here so I'm out of the way of your plans for my company?"

Pegasus put an elbow on his knee and propped his chin on a fist. He didn't interrupt while Seto's voice grew in volume, but waited until a few seconds after Seto stopped to speak.

"No. I haven't been lying. I wanted your companionship and knew this was my only option to get it. Be honest with yourself, Kaiba-boy. Kaiba Corporation's greatest source of revenue is products to support my game. It makes sense that I would buy it from you."

"Anything else I should know about? Did you hijack my jet to bring me here? Sell one of my kidneys?"

"Now you're just being absurd for the sake of argument. Can you really tell me you'd rather someone else end up with your business?"

"Yes."

"Then I suppose I should be lucky you weren't there to fight me on it."

"You said you wanted to build up trust between us?"

"I do."

"You're off to a wretched start."

Pegasus stretched his arm a bit to reveal his watch before giving it a short glance.

"I told you. It will probably be years before I trust you enough to open the door. So if you want to rant anymore, go ahead. We have time."

The only outlet for Seto's frustration that he didn't see as humiliating himself was running his fingers back through his hair. So he did. Several times. He tugged at the strands until he felt them starting to come out, and then settled for crossing his arms, squeezing above each elbow hard enough to leave bruises.

"I get that we live in the insane portion of the world that believes that drastic measures have to be taken to accomplish a goal," Seto started, hating the amused expression Pegasus just wouldn't abandon. "-But there are plenty of companies bought out every day without anyone getting kidnapped. I'm sure you've heard of them."

"This wasn't about your company."

"Of course it was. I know perfectly well how delightful people find my presence in their lives, so you couldn't have wanted me for this reason you are insisting upon. People just don't do that."

"And yet I did."

"Tell me how you expect this whole charade to go. How you anticipate me taking this."

"I thought you'd be much more violent about it," Pegasus said. He stood up and pushed the chair back against the concrete wall so there was nothing in between the two of them but glass. "This passive anger is surprising, but not unwelcomed. I suspect that you will carry on hating me until you finally come to understand that I'm not letting you go and that you aren't getting away. You'll calm down then, little prince, although I'm sure that the rest of your life will be looking for a way out. Anyway, you'll settle in upstairs in your wing and be my constant companion."

"Get someone who cares about you."

"I wanted you, Kaiba-boy."

"You're lying."

"Why is it so hard for you to accept that someone might actually want you? Hm? Are you so used to being hated and tossed aside, insulted and beat down that you can't just accept that I want you? Platonically, of course."

"That isn't what I am saying."

"Sure it isn't. It might come across more convincing, Kaiba-boy, if your entire argument wasn't based around the fact that people don't want you near them."

"My argument is that you are insane-"

"Eccentric."

"-And should just let me out of this box."

"You should stop asking me to let you out. You'll get out when I feel you're ready."

"What else am I supposed to do? Let's assume it's all well and good for you to hold someone prisoner to chat with them half an hour each day. You go on after you leave and run your business, my business. You can watch your insipid cartoons and do whatever you'd like to. I'm stuck here with a few books. I'm not going to stop asking you to let me out, even if it just means getting locked in a different room."

"There are worse accommodations in my home. Are you saying you'd rather I moved you to a dungeon?"

"I doubt I'd feel so much like a zoo exhibit in a dungeon," Seto said. He didn't know if he would actually prefer being kept in one of Pegasus's dungeons. He had been down there before and knew exactly the disrepair they were in.

"Unfortunately, I designed this space for you, so you'll have to stay in here. It will get better with time."

"Once I've learned all the tricks you want me to? Stopped fighting?"

"You know, you're the one inciting all the pet references."

"I believe you called me 'goldfish' this morning."

"A goldfish is hardly a pet."

"Then it's a waste of space that gets thrown away within a few days."

"What shall I call you then? Parakeet? Kitten? Tortoise?"

"Kaiba is fine. Or better yet, call me from a safe distance away."

Pegasus smirked and popped his back, then rolled his neck to either side. Seto tried to use the moment to see if there was an eye in the empty socket, but didn't get a clear look.

"You never talked to me when I called you from a safe distance."

"I don't want to talk to you now," Seto said. He turned and walked back to the bed. "Just go."

With another look at his watch, Pegasus said, "Are you sure? You'll be alone again until I come back in the morning. And even then, I can't stay long."

"I'm sure."

"All right. Do you still want me to bring a chess set?"

Seto nodded. Even though he didn't want to talk to Pegasus at that moment, he couldn't just ignore him forever, at that rate, he would never get out of the room, out of the castle, or back to his home. Chess gave him an excuse not to talk while still interacting with Pegasus in some small way.

"Then I will be back in the morning. Don't forget the French!"

The lights were dimmed when Pegasus left, so Seto didn't know how he was supposed to start with French when he couldn't see the book. And his stomach was still growling, but Seto's mind was winning over his body. Physically, he was hungry; mentally, he was not.

He had skipped plenty of meals before. Another one couldn't hurt.


	4. Chapter 4

Seto had been awake for hours before Pegasus showed up. Without a window to judge the passing of time, he didn't know how long he had been asleep, but he normally got five or six hours. Once he had woken up, Seto tried to fall back asleep, because it was dark and he couldn't do much in the dark.

After failing to sleep, Seto went into the bathroom to use the light in there. It didn't much help light up the bedroom, but did give Seto enough light to sit in the doorway between the two rooms and read. The position on the floor was uncomfortable, but the heat had finally filtered through the room, leaving it almost warm enough to be tolerable.

He made halfway through one of the French language guides before the lights were turned up to full power.

"Good morning, Kaiba-boy."

Seto didn't move to see Pegasus, and his back was to the glass wall so Pegasus couldn't see his face, just the back of his head and a shoulder. Maybe a knee, because Seto had his legs pulled up to hold his book against his thighs.

"I brought you an actual breakfast," Pegasus said. "Eggs, sausage, toast. And it's all hot right now."

Tempting, but not enough for Seto to move.

"And coffee, strong, full of caffeine-"

That was really all it took. Seto checked first to make sure that he could see the mug in Pegasus's hands, accompanied by a thick stream of steam rising from the top. Whether Pegasus was telling the truth about it being coffee, or if it was actually tea or hot chocolate, Seto didn't care. Coffee was preferable for the caffeine, but he could settle for something other than lukewarm tap water.

Seto pushed himself to his feet and left the books on the floor. The heat made walking on the concrete bearable, so he walked over to the hatch without carrying the blanket.

He could smell the coffee the moment the hatch door opened, but the plate came through first and was traded out for the salad from the night before. The coffee stayed on the other side.

"Are you going to mock me with it?" Seto asked.

"I'm going to trade you for it."

"I have nothing to trade."

Which was a lie now that Pegasus had KaibaCorp. It hadn't been a clean takeover, so Pegasus wouldn't have any of Seto's log ins or access codes. He always had those to bargain with.

"You have your family's medical history."

"What?"

"I don't know who you were before being a Kaiba, and it seems that money hasn't been able to buy any information about your biological family. I want to know who you were before becoming Seto Kaiba, and I want any information about your family's health history. I realize you were a child at the time of the transition, but whatever you happen to know will suffice."

"The transition? You mean when my parents died. Just call it what it was."

"When your parents died."

Seto really wanted the coffee, and he hardly cared about telling Pegasus some medical information. He understood Pegasus's interest. If Seto was going to be staying as his prisoner for a lifetime, Pegasus would need to know what he was getting himself into. And since Seto had looked into his own past before, he knew exactly what information a good investigator could dig up, so he assumed that Pegasus had lied about finding nothing. Seto could give Pegasus what he already would have known.

"Seto Tomura. I was born in Japan, which is where my family died. My mother died in childbirth, my father in a car accident. As far as I know, there are no terrible illnesses that run in my family."

Pegasus nodded. "Any allergies?"

"None. The allergic-to-peanuts gene seemed to skip over me."

"Is that common in your family?"

"From what I recall."

Pegasus pushed the mug through the hatch before locking it. Seto didn't waste a moment before taking a sip, glad to find it still hot enough to burn his tongue, and a fairly decent cup of black coffee.

"You should eat the rest while it's hot. How did you end up in the United States?"

"Our godparents lived here," Seto said, taking another sip. But now that he had what he wanted, Pegasus would have to work harder for the information he was after.

"Why didn't you stay with your godparents?"

"We had better things to do."

Pegasus smiled like he understood the shift in Seto's tone. He set the old plate on the chair and stood in front of Seto, never losing the amused expression. Seto hated serving as a source of laughter for Pegasus, but there wasn't much to do to counteract it.

"It seems the heat started working."

"Hardly."

"Has anyone ever told you to be more grateful?"

"Only madmen who kidnap me."

"Are you going to eat?"

"Probably," Seto said. He glanced down at the plate with the plastic fork jutting over the edge. He took a sip of the coffee and his glasses fogged over.

"If you would tell me what foods you like, I would bring them to you. Honestly, I'm running out of meals that can be served cold or at room temperature."

"I'm not picky, just not hungry."

"But it has been days since you've really eaten, Kaiba-boy."

"It has also been days since I've been out of this room. I'm sure you see the correlation."

"You're just going to have to get used to it. A life under artificial light won't kill you."

Seto sighed. He didn't feel like arguing that the lighting was the least of his concerns, that in fact, he liked the lighting and wanted it on always.

"You didn't bring a chess set."

"I only have two hands. I'll bring it tonight. I have to head up to work in just a few."

Seto took another sip and hated how quickly he was emptying the mug. He hoped a single cup would be enough to temper his caffeine withdrawals, because after the previous day's headache, he didn't feel like putting up with it again.

"How's the French coming along?" Pegasus asked.

"About how you would expect with only a few hours to get started. The lights are too dim at night."

It obviously bothered Seto more than he cared to admit if it just slipped out.

"If they were any brighter, I doubt you could sleep."

"If I get tired, I will sleep. The light won't make a difference."

Pegasus sighed and glanced over in the way he came and went, gaze focusing on something out of Seto's sight.

"I'd rather you didn't wake me up at two in the morning because it is too bright for you to sleep."

"You bring me dinner at what, six, seven? If you turn off the lights when you leave and I go to sleep then for a lack of something better to do, then I will wake up around midnight. Then I'm stuck in the dark until you show up again."

"You made due this morning," Pegasus said, gesturing toward the bathroom.

"So I am supposed to spend my time in the bathroom?"

"Sure. I've got to run now. I'll bring a chess set tonight."

Without another word, Pegasus picked up Seto's old plate and walked over to turn off the speaker. Seto couldn't argue any more, but was stuck, again, waiting for Pegasus to come back.

But he did pick up the plate. Pegasus couldn't have stayed longer than a few minutes, so it wouldn't be too cold. He reclaimed his spot in the doorway so his back was to the camera.

He needed to find a way to get up high enough to rip down the camera. It wasn't like Pegasus could get in to repair or replace it. Maybe that would be when he finally got around to drugging Seto's food. It would be worth it to get rid of the camera, and to test Pegasus's limits. Like everything else about being kidnapped, it required Seto to wait.

He ate the food Pegasus had brought and found that it wasn't drugged. The coffee was nursed until every drop was gone, and then Seto put all the used dishes back beside the hatch door.

Trying to sleep came next, but Seto failed again, still hardwired to stay awake throughout the daytime hours. His internal clock wouldn't allow him to nap. He had plenty of time to retrain it though.

Reading the French study guides sounded marginally less interesting than reading the book in Spanish, so Seto grabbed the last novel he could read from the shelf and sat in bed to read. Like Mother, it was a book that barely clung to Seto's attention.

Once he could no longer stand sitting in the bed or looking at words on a page, Seto went to shower. The bathroom was designed with three concrete walls, the fourth wall being the one between Seto's rooms, and it was just drywall. When Seto put weight on it, he felt the wall start to give. It had to be double layered to hold the pocket door, but wasn't designed to be a bathroom. Seto couldn't find a vent, which meant the moisture would just build up in the room. He left the pocket door cracked open in hopes that would help the moisture dissipate.

Seto had nothing else to change into, so he had to put back on the same outfit he had been wearing since he woke up in the cage. It was just another thing that needed to be addressed with Pegasus.

Napping eluded him again, which was starting to get under Seto's skin, because he had managed to fall back asleep the day before with minimal effort. Maybe reality had set in harsher than before or the drugs hadn't fully left his system then. It had been two days - three days?

Pegasus had KaibaCorp, or at least, Seto had no way to prove otherwise. It would take several months, if not longer, for Pegasus to have been fully accepted as KaibaCorp's CEO, and it would probably be easier if Seto was out of the way for it. Maybe once KaibaCorp was fully under Pegasus's control, Seto would be allowed to leave. After seeing what lengths Pegasus would go through to get what he wanted, Seto would grab Mokuba and put as much distance between the two of them and Pegasus as he could manage.

He could reclaim KaibaCorp remotely, somehow. All of his money would have gone to Mokuba, or would be willed over once Seto was considered dead. But that took years. And Seto didn't want to get out and then leave a trail of money for Pegasus to follow.

A plan would come to him eventually. He had nothing but time to think of something.

Seto hated not being able to hear Pegasus approaching. Pegasus just showed up later on that day, holding a basket in both hands. He set it down by the chair before turning on the intercom.

"Good afternoon, Kaiba-boy."

"I don't suppose you have a change of clothes in there."

"I do indeed. I'll pass them through and you can go change. I'll wash that set for you and switch them out later."

"Does that mean I'm only allowed one set of clothing at a time?"

"Knowing what I do about you, Kaiba-boy, I'm sure you could find a way out of here with just a pair of pants."

Seto accepted the clothing as Pegasus passed it through the hatch. There was an annoying lack of socks or shoes, but Seto took them regardless and headed for the bathroom while Pegasus traded out his plate.

Seto changed quickly. There wasn't much to either set of identical clothing – the pants didn't even have a button for the clasp, but a drawstring. He knew that wearing pajamas would get old, likely before the cage drove Seto to madness. The silk seemed to scratch at his skin, and Seto wondered if Pegasus would spring for some nicer clothing if asked.

Although he wanted to keep both sets of clothes, he didn't want to try to wash them in the shower or in the sink. Eventually he'd negotiate something with Pegasus that allowed him to keep more than one pair of pants at a time.

"Have you been sufficiently convinced that I'm not drugging your food?"

"Not yet. You sedated me to bring me here. I'm not foolish enough to think you only purchased one dose."

Pegasus had slid the plate with Seto's dinner through the hatch, another sandwich, but instead of chips, it had some raw vegetables on the side. There was no accompanying mug of coffee.

"Is there a reason you only bring two meals a day?"

"I didn't think you would eat three. I'd rather not waste any more food than I already am."

"Your island is how many miles off shore?" Seto asked.

"Sixty-three from the nearest land, but seventy-nine from the nearest land with a grocery store," Pegasus said, seeming to catch onto Seto's train of thought.

Seto chose to sit on the floor rather than the bed, but used it as a backrest. His body was starting to sore from all the time spent sitting, but there wasn't much space for him to do anything else. The floor was at least a little different than the bed.

"There have to be more islands around here though."

"There are three, all privately owned. They just have vacation homes on them."

"Why not just live on the mainland? It must be a hassle coming out here all the time."

Pegasus smirked and sat down in the chair after moving the laundry basket to the floor. Seto spotted the chess set in the basket, but decided to wait before mentioning it. If the game had to be paused, then it would run over to the next night. Seto doubted Pegasus would want to bother with it in the few minutes he stopped by in the mornings. Since the last time he had spoken to Pegasus ended in a pseudo-fight, Seto didn't want to leave them without some sort of mediator. Getting along with Pegasus meant getting out.

"I highly doubt you care about my island, Kaiba-boy. Why don't we talk about you instead?"

"You didn't bring a coffee," Seto said.

"It's getting late. You'll never get to sleep."

"When you drink as much coffee as I do, you become desensitized to the effects of the caffeine, save for the withdrawal systems."

"I'll keep that in mind. What part of Japan are you from?"

"Miyagi Prefecture."

"I haven't heard of it."

"Not everyone is from Tokyo."

"But you don't look very Japanese. I mean, you have such blue eyes."

Seto shrugged. "Abnormalities happen. I don't really know my entire genetic history."

"You could have asked your godparents."

With a snort, Seto adjusted so the corner of the bed frame wasn't digging into his spine.

"How did you end up going from a relative's – now I'm assuming they were relatives? Yes? – home to an orphanage?"

"In ways that don't concern you."

Pegasus threw a hand over his heart and gasped. "How you wound me, Kaiba-boy. Tomura-boy? No, that just doesn't have a nice ring to it."

"Or you could just leave off that last bit altogether. I'm hardly a child."

"No, I suppose you're not. You're a boy who takes himself too seriously. Even for a game designer-"

"I'm a software engineer. I don't make the games."

"Who designs the software that allows the games to be played. Really, semantics."

"It's a different thing."

"If you insist," Pegasus said. "But you've gotten me sidetracked. I don't supposed you did that on purpose?"

"If you didn't want to be sidetracked, you should pay more attention to the conversation."

"But following a train of thought is far more interesting. You know, keeping with the ebb and flow of dialogue. It isn't natural to fight against it."

"I clearly didn't fight it. But then again, you've made it fairly obvious that I can't fight."

"Oh, now you're just being petty. I've heard all about what a good hand-to-hand fighter you are. And so resourceful, Kaiba-boy. Using a briefcase to fend off gunfire? A card to jam a trigger? Hearing tales of your exploits all those years ago was like watching a drama unfold!"

"And now I have no options, not even an extra pair of pants."

"A briefcase and a playing card. You have a knack for using unconventional items to your advantage."

Pegasus ended his sentence in such a way that Seto could see he was about to continue. He watched Pegasus shake his head slowly before giving Seto a knowing grin. "And a knack for changing the subject, apparently."

"It's proven a useful skill."

"Occupationally?"

"With Mokuba. Kid likes to argue."

"He does – you just did it again! I'm catching onto you, Kaiba-boy. Your tricks aren't going to continue working."

"Why do you even care about my biological relatives? They were not part of the interesting portion of my life."

"I am trying to get to know you. Starting from the beginning is always an easy way to go."

"Then shall I give you the Tristram Shandy version of my life? Start by describing the history of the caterer at my parents' wedding? Maybe the nurse who helped deliver me? Is that what you are interested in hearing?"

"You have odd taste in literature," Pegasus said.

"You have odd taste in literature," Seto threw back. "These books are ridiculous."

"They are classics. I can take them all away, if you'd prefer."

"You'll have to come in to get them."

Seto stood to take the step forward to the glass. There had been a delay in the conversation, and when trying to change the subject, it was never a good idea to leave a gap for the other person to come up with their own comment. It usually led back to the topic that needed to be avoided.

Luckily, Seto had another option.

"You brought chess."

"I did. It isn't a fancy set or anything. Maybe I'll purchase a set with customizable pieces. Make you and me the kings. My toons can defend me, while your dragons can defend you."

"Whatever. Just bring it out."

Seto sat close to the glass, and Pegasus moved to sit on the floor as well. The chess board was set up right next to the wall so Seto could see it, although Pegasus would have to make his moves for him. The plastic pieces ended up in their proper positions without any instruction from Seto, which at least meant that Pegasus knew something about the game.

"I forgot to ask," Pegasus said. "Do you normally play white or black?"

"Black."

"Is there a reason for that?"

"I want to see how you open."

"Is that a trick you picked up from your-"

Pegasus stopped and huffed again, slapping a hand against the glass like he wanted to shove Seto. "You truly are masterful at changing the subject. Honestly, truly impressive."

"Just start playing."

Pegasus moved a pawn two spaces forward, and said, "I want to know about your godparents."

"Pawn to D5. I don't want to talk about it."

There wasn't much of a reason for Seto to give thought to his moves, since from just a few haphazard moves from Pegasus, Seto could tell that the man didn't know what he was doing. Solely to drag out the match, Seto threw in a few odd moves of his own.

"I met my wife when we were children," Pegasus said, making one of Seto's moves for him. "She was, and still is, the most beautiful person I have ever seen."

Under any other circumstance, Seto would have informed Pegasus that he really didn't care to hear the story of his lost love, but it kept Seto from having to discuss his own lost family, so he let it slide, only speaking to tell Pegasus which piece to move.

"She teased me so at first. But you know children and how they flirt. Have you ever flirted, Kaiba-boy?"

"No. And I said E6, not E7."

"I can't believe that you've never flirted, and so I'm calling your bluff. I'm not saying you had to flirt because you liked someone, but because you needed something, maybe? To trick someone? Because you wanted to be spiteful? Revenge?"

"Then fine, I've flirted."

"Who with?" Pegasus asked, his tone light and irritating.

"People."

Seto directed his next move and noticed that he was running out of ways to drag out the game. Pegasus truly was terrible at chess, and Seto was having to purposefully give up each opportunity he had come across – and there had been several – to win. After another four moves, Seto couldn't fake interest anymore, so he moved in for the checkmate.

With an overly dramatic exhale, Pegasus tipped over his king.

"You're impressive, Kaiba-boy."

Seto just leaned back on his hands while he watched Pegasus fold the board in half and set it on the chair. If Pegasus was packing up, it meant that he was about to leave, which meant the lights would be dimmed. He hadn't managed to get tired, even though he had been awake since around midnight. He would be stuck in the dark until he could get to sleep, and then again after waking up.

"You are going to eat, right?" Pegasus asked. He had picked up the basket along with the plate and mug from breakfast, and was staring down at Seto.

"I am. Are you going to make me sit in darkness while I do?"

"You need to be able to sleep."

"There are much more important things that I need right now. Just leave the lights on."

"Maybe in a few days. But you should try to keep your sleep cycle in check."

Seto stood up and put two fists against the glass. "My sleep cycle? That's what you're concerned about? I have nothing to do but sleep. If you're so concerned about my well-being in here, then give me something to do, or better yet, just let me go."

"Good night, Kaiba-boy."

The speaker went off before Seto could get out the long stream of curses that followed after Pegasus's departure. His frustration resulted in a single hit on the glass, but that was all he allowed himself with the camera glaring down. Seto went back to sitting on the floor, but on the side of the bed that faced the bookshelf so that the camera could only see his profile. He pulled his knees up to his chest and dropped his forehead down to press against them.

He would kill Pegasus whenever that door was raised.

-x-

The lights had been dimmed for a while, which made Seto think that Pegasus would be showing up at any time to turn them back on. Seto leaned his head to either side to pop his neck, and then twisted to get his back to do the same. He was sitting on the bathroom floor again, still in the doorway, but at a better angle to catch more of the light. He was tired, but not from sleep deprivation, but from staring at the French text on the page. But having an eidetic memory helped keep all the information stored whether he wanted it to be or not.

Seto heard a tapping on his glass, which he thought was odd since Pegasus had been announcing himself before turning on the lights or walking into view. The tapping grew more insistent until it was actually a pounding, like someone was trying to break down the wall.

Seto turned and saw the outline of someone there, but his eyes weren't adjusted enough to make out a face. He saw the long, white hair first, and assumed it was Pegasus being his usual strange self, but then realized the hair was white and not silver.

"Bakura?"


	5. Chapter 5

Seto got to his feet and stepped over, only barely able to make out Bakura's face in the darkness. His eyes were narrow and his lips firm, so it couldn't have been the brighter half of Bakura's personality.

Bakura mouthed something, or rather, he said something that Seto couldn't hear. Seto thought that he might have been able to hear the smallest bits of Bakura's voice edging through the holes cut in the top of the glass wall, but it could have just been Seto's imagination.

Seto touched a finger to his ear and shook his head.

It was too dark to catch much of Bakura's expressions, but Seto watched him turn his head in either direction down the hall and then lift both hands in question. If he had been there for Seto, he wouldn't have been gesturing to the hallway, but to the wall. If Bakura wasn't there for him, then –

Seto lifted his chin in understanding and pointed in the direction Pegasus always came from. If there was an exit, it had to be that way.

Bakura ran off without another word or motion. Seto couldn't watch him go, but at least had learned that there must have been multiple hallways branching out from both ends of Seto's space, otherwise Bakura wouldn't have had to ask.

But then Bakura was gone and Seto was left waiting. He didn't know what exactly he was waiting for, Pegasus to show up, Bakura to run back, gun shots, an explosion, or something entirely unexpected. He hated that something was finally happening, something that Pegasus didn't have in his master plan, and Seto was stuck waiting for a vague description of events, if Pegasus would give him even that.

There was nothing to do but return to his spot on the floor and wait, but the monotony of staring at the page couldn't hold Seto's attention. He just wanted to know what was going on, why Bakura was there, if Bakura had been caught, and how Pegasus would react to it. He doubted that he would ever get the full story, and that irked him to the point his foot started bouncing to let out the antsiness he was experiencing.

Although there was little space to move in the bedroom, the bathroom had around seven feet of length for Seto to pace. He stood and stretched, staying out of sight from the camera's eye, and began walking the length of the bathroom. The laps were short and became repetitively dull but he kept going because he needed even the little exercise he could manage, and moving gave him an excuse for the rapid beating of his heart.

His internal clock wasn't as precise as it used to be, but after six-hundred and forty-seven laps, Seto started to wonder if Pegasus was late. He had been awake reading for several hours before Bakura had run by, But even after another three hundred and ninety-eight laps, Pegasus hadn't shown up.

He couldn't bring himself to start reading again, but he widened his pacing lap to include the bedroom, tapping a fist against the wall by the bookshelf before heading back into the bathroom to tap the fist against that one. He repeated that action many times, but didn't bother counting them. Pegasus had to be late, which meant Bakura had to have caused an issue. And if it was taking this long, then something was happening that might end up in Seto's favor.

Eventually, Seto collapsed onto his bed.

What would bring Bakura to the island? Seto knew that when he had disappeared, Mokuba would have gone straight to Yugi to enlist his help. Yugi's little squadron of world savers would have tagged along, but Seto didn't quite remember if Bakura was part of the official group. And if they had come as part of a rescue mission, Bakura had done a miserable job of getting Seto out. He hadn't tried to open the door.

Pegasus didn't come for what must have been a full day. That left Seto in the dark, with hunger pains that wouldn't end. He took two showers for an excuse to stay in the bathroom where it was bright.

He made an attempt to read the initial French novel Pegasus had left for him, but ended up just skimming it for the parts of each sentence he knew. He could understand over pieces of it, but not nearly enough for him to stop the charade of learning a new language. But Pegasus was probably fluent, and he wouldn't be content until Seto was as well.

That was, if he ever returned. There had to be a fallback plan in the event that something happened to Pegasus. If Bakura killed Pegasus or managed to contact someone, one of the members of Pegasus's household must have known where Seto was and how to get him out. There was that Croquet person who always seemed to be a few steps behind Pegasus.

Pegasus wasn't coming back. For someone who checked his watch as often as Pegasus did, he wasn't being punctual.

His watch. If he only stayed with Seto for twenty minutes a day, he certainly had extra time to stay longer. He didn't, and Bakura was on the island.

When Seto heard the speaker crackle, he got to his feet and walked to the wall. It might have looked better, less desperate if he stayed on the bed, but he was interested and hopeful for a cup of coffee.

Which he saw in Pegasus's hand when the lights came up.

"Morning, Kaiba-boy," he said in the same cheerful manner as every morning.

"Did you grow tired of me yesterday?"

Pegasus tilted his head and walked over to the hatch, propping it open with a bent knee while sliding the plate through. The plate had more food on it than normal, all hot and steaming, and the mug of coffee followed. Seto picked it up without hesitation, unlike normal days. Although the action was solely because he wanted the coffee, he hoped Pegasus would take it as a sign of trust and let information slip. Seto had yet to eat in front of Pegasus, aside from the camera recording him.

"Yesterday was quite hectic for me. I'm deeply and ardently sorry for keeping you waiting so long."

"So, I'm just supposed to believe you were too busy to bring me food? Or to turn on the light?"

"Busy is an accurate word."

"I'm including lies by omission."

Pegasus seemed to find Seto's comment equal parts amusing and irritating. The irritation was far more interesting than the amusement, and Seto contemplated the reasoning behind the emotion. It had to go back to Bakura.

"If you don't want me to omit things, Kaiba-boy, you should ask more specific questions."

It hadn't been that long. Seto wouldn't lose that much time by going back to square one just to ask after Bakura before fully thinking it through.

So more out of reconnaissance than anything, Seto did the opposite of Pegasus's suggestion and stopped talking for a while. He ate the food he was brought and continued his studies of French, but kept silent any time Pegasus made an appearance.

Instead of talking, Seto counted the seconds it took from Pegasus's arrival to his departure. It had to be why Pegasus checked it watch so often; he had somewhere else to be.

A few days after Seto's kidnapping, Pegasus had eaten dinner with him. Well, he had eaten in the hallway on the other side of the glass while Seto sat on his bed and counted seconds. Pegasus didn't attempt to start a conversation, but stayed quietly where he was until some unknown time, and then said his goodbye.

Seven days later, he ate dinner with Seto again. By that point, Seto had figured out that Pegasus spent five minutes with him in the morning, and fifteen minutes each night. Two days out of the seven, Pegasus stayed down longer. Seto had lost count on one of those days, but the other ended up lasting about an hour and a half. Those must have been the weekends. Pegasus came back with dinner later on, staying for the standard fifteen minutes.

At first, the amount of time Pegasus was spending with Seto was annoying. Not because Seto didn't want Pegasus around, but because it was too short. If Pegasus wanted Seto's company so badly that he was willing to kidnap him and build some insane cell, then he should want to spend more time with Seto.

It couldn't have had to do with running Industrial Illusions and possibly KaibaCorp. Seto had run a company for years and had more than twenty minutes a day to spare. And that had been working more than eleven hours a day outside of his home.

When Pegasus reappeared on what Seto added up to be a Wednesday night, Seto addressed him first.

"Play chess with me."

The chess board hadn't moved since their last game, and Pegasus nodded and smiled like the past two weeks of silence never happened. The plates were traded out first, and Pegasus started to set up the board.

"Black again?"

Seto nodded and walked over to the wall, taking the same seat he had the time before. He nudged the plate out of the way, but plucked a chip from it first.

"Have you finished those French books? I can bring down some more."

"They're about memorized."

"I have a few up in my library. I don't suppose you've been practicing speaking it in addition to learning to read it?"

"Your camera doesn't have sound?"

"No, just a fuzzy picture. It really isn't there to spy on you, just in case you need something while I'm gone. It will see if you wave."

Seto couldn't think of any scenarios, at first, for why he might need to call down Pegasus, but thought of one he felt needed to be addressed. So while Pegasus set the last row of pawns in place, Seto asked, "And what happens if I get sick? Get hurt?"

"Do you think that I would live so far off shore without keeping a doctor on staff?"

"I wouldn't have thought that you would be able to keep so many bribable people on staff."

"Yes, it is amazing what a well-placed dollar can accomplish."

They started the game and Pegasus didn't seem to have improved. Seto hoped that waiting until they were several moves in would keep him from leaving when Seto began to present his argument.

"I don't suppose you've been practicing," Seto said. He told Pegasus his next move and watched to see if Pegasus would adjust appropriately. He didn't, and Seto wondered if he could win blindfolded, without knowing Pegasus's moves or the locations of his pieces.

"Unfortunately, I haven't had the time. Not all of us get to lounge around all day."

Seto scratched his nose with his middle finger and gave Pegasus his next move, ending up checkmating just five moves into the game. Pegasus rolled his eyes – eye? Seto still hadn't figured it out – and tipped over the king.

"That was petty."

"Maybe I should act out more than I do. Chat with the occasional neighbors running by."

Pegasus's eye narrowed and his smile was forced. Seto hadn't bothered concealing the smugness in his tone, so he was certain Pegasus understood what he really meant.

"I think that your plural is misused."

"You have Mokuba."

Seto met Pegasus's gaze and held it.

"What makes you say that?"

"Are you denying it?"

"I'm waiting to hear you prove it."

"You visit twice a day for twenty minutes. Assuming that you are working eight to five like you said, that only leaves fifteen hours of your day. If you sleep for eight of those hours, that makes seven unused hours. Now, if you are making the meals you bring down for me, that is another half hour to an hour a day. So you have around six unaccounted for hours in your day."

"That's enlightening, Kaiba-boy."

"There's also the basics, showering, shaving, getting dressed, and the like, so let's take away another hour. Let's also say you watch two hours of television a day. We're down to three hours, give or take."

"I should hire you as my secretary, Kaiba-boy. You're obviously talented at time management."

"If you wanted me here to spend time with me, it would be more than twenty minutes a day."

"Maybe that's all of you I can handle."

"You eat dinner with me once a week, Thursdays, if I'm not mistaken. On the weekends, you are here for about an hour and a half each morning, then the standard fifteen at night. Even if you are busy during the week, you would make more time on the weekends."

"You've been quite boring lately. Did you ever think I just find you dull?"

"No. That defeats the purpose of me being here. I'm not the only person you brought. You're dividing your time."

"Then your math still doesn't add up. I would only need an extra half hour each day in that event, and you've sectioned off a full three."

"I didn't say it was just Mokuba."

Pegasus smiled and twirled the white queen around his fingers. "Do continue. This is such an interesting story."

"Seven days, seven people. If you wake up at six each morning, get ready, and then do your rounds of all of us, you would just need about an hour to complete the circuit."

"Seven people at five minutes each isn't an hour."

"But you've already said I'm out of the way. If I take your word for that, then we would be spread out around your castle, and you might have to make stops back at the kitchen to grab plates. I'm adding in the time it takes to walk from person to person."

"Very thoughtful."

"Mokuba and I were at the convention. But you also knew other people there."

"It was my convention, Kaiba-boy. Of course I knew those people."

"If my life has been any indication, you brought the Geek Squad along as well. Myself, Mokuba, Moto, Wheeler, Taylor – but no, it was Devlin that day – Gardner, and Bakura. Seven people."

"I can see you've put a great deal of thought into this."

"Do you have Mokuba?"

Pegasus smiled along with his exhale and set down the queen. "I do."

The slightest trace of hope Seto had that the answer would be no cracked and shriveled, leaving him wordless for a few seconds. He allowed the anger to roll through him just long enough that he knew Pegasus could see it on his face, and then said, "You told me you were sure he was at home in his bed."

"This is his home now, just as much as it is yours. And I couldn't be sure he was in his bed. I greatly suspected-"

"Bullshit."

Seto pushed himself up to his feet because his legs felt like they were on fire and he needed to let out the energy somehow, even if it was just pacing the few steps of space that he had available.

"It's the truth. I haven't lied to you."

"I asked if he was safe. That obviously meant 'Do you have my brother?'"

"But you're perfectly safe, and I have you. And he is safe and I have him. If you would just ask things straight out, you wouldn't have this issue."

Seto spun so his back faced the glass, leaning against it so Pegasus couldn't see his expression.

"Does he know I'm here?"

"He does."

"Why would you tell him and not me?"

"He asked specifically." Pegasus paused after he spoke, but Seto didn't turn around or find enough coherent thought to ask another question. After a few moments, Pegasus added, "If it makes you feel any better, his accommodations are much better than yours. He is reading through my library at a record speed."

"So that's what you meant," Seto said, still keeping his back to Pegasus. "-When you said I would see him again. You meant that you had him here."

"Yes. I hope you don't mind, but that wing of yours is made to hold two."

Seto turned and had to force himself to look up at Pegasus. He couldn't recall being so angry in years, not since seeing Mokuba dangling out of a helicopter. It had been so long since his heart burned and his jaw quivered in rage. And now there was a wall of glass preventing him from doing anything to change his situation.

"I want to see him."

"I can't do that just yet, Kaiba-boy. Neither of you has earned that."

"Then a picture. If you have him, I need to know that he is fine. And I clearly can't trust your word for it."

"I don't have to prove anything. You'll see. Maybe in a few months-"

"You don't have the right to keep me from seeing him."

"I didn't have the right to kidnap you either, but here we are. But really, Kaiba-boy, calm down. He's completely fine. A little anxious, maybe a touch depressed, but perfectly unharmed. His room is upstairs. He has a window overlooking the ocean, although I have to admit, he has some bars blocking his access to the window. You can hardly blame me after last time he was my guest."

"Your guest? Do you hear yourself? He's a child."

"You both are my guests. Your rooms depend on the level of resistance I expected from you. Little Mokuba has a locked door and a barred window, you have this," Pegasus said with a grand gesture to the glass.

"What's it going to take?"

"For you to see your precious brother?"

"Of course."

"Friendship."

"You're joking."

"Not in the slightest. That's what I want from the two of you, so I'm not going to compromise on that. When I believe you've really warmed up to me, I'll let you two reunite."

"How do you expect that to happen if I'm trapped in a fucking display case?"

"You are only in there because I don't trust you. When I do, you'll get out."

"I can't prove myself trustworthy without being given opportunities to fail."

"You'll get plenty of opportunities. And besides, we have time."

Seto crossed his arms and didn't know if he should be enraged or frustrated or horrified. He preferred the Pegasus from Duelist Kingdom, the one who was upfront about what he wanted and let Seto fight back. It might not have been a fair fight, but at least he gave Seto the pretense.

"I want to know that Mokuba is okay. If you want to be able to trust me, then I need to trust you. You have my brother. Okay. Prove it and prove that he is fine."

"I will take your request into consideration."

Seto nodded without anything else to do. Pegasus had Mokuba, and even though he had told Seto that he had no intentions of threatening him, just having Mokuba was threat enough. It was the threat of not being able to see Mokuba should Seto not cooperate. That wouldn't just be a punishment to Seto, but to Mokuba, who apparently was anxious and depressed.

"You took my locket."

"You mean the KaibaCorp swipe card? Oh yes, I did take that."

Talking with Pegasus was tiring, and Seto had been ready to send him away almost since the beginning. But he couldn't, because Pegasus was his only way to get the door opened. Trying to figure out Pegasus was also probably one of the only things keeping Seto sane.

"The picture inside had nothing to do with that. You should give me that one back."

Pegasus opened his mouth as if to argue, then closed it. His lips pressed together and he leaned his head to the side.

"All right. I'll track it down."

Seto couldn't bring himself to actually be grateful for regaining an item stolen from him, so he nodded instead. It was the first thing he had gotten Pegasus to relent on, and it had to do with Mokuba. Seto didn't want to bring Mokuba into his strategy against Pegasus, but it might end up at the only way.

Sighing, Seto said, "You have the Geek Brigade too."

"I do."

Seto didn't know why he cared. It mostly just added to Pegasus's defense about why he had kidnapped Seto. If it was really all about KaibaCorp, then the others wouldn't need to have been brought along. Although, they did have the annoying habit of getting into Seto's business. They probably would have looked for him when he had gone missing.

"Does that make you jealous?" Pegasus asked.

"What?"

"That I brought them along as well. Or did you think you were just special?"

Seto rolled his eyes, both of them, because he had two, and shook his head. "I wouldn't have minded if you left Mokuba and me out of this whatever you want from them."

"You know, you're rather ungrateful to a group of people who have saved your life, not to mention that of Little Mokuba, on multiple occasions."

"If people would stop putting ours lives in danger, it wouldn't be an issue."

Now when Pegasus took a glance at his watch, Seto knew what he was doing. They all had to have a fifteen minute slot, and he was keeping up with it. But he had found out more in the last few minutes than he had in the two weeks since he woke up imprisoned, so Seto couldn't just let Pegasus walk away.

"Did you catch Bakura?"

"I did."

"So what happens," Seto asked, "if one of us actually succeeds in getting out and manages to inform the authorities about all this?"

"How are you planning to get out?" Pegasus said. He tapped a finger against the glass, that same, irritating finger he used to make all of his points.

"I never said it would be me."

"There are plenty of contingencies in place. I'm not worried about that happening."

"Humor me."

"If you get out of this room, you would still have to get out of the castle. Get out of the castle and you have to get off the island. Get off the island and you have to cross seventy miles of ocean. Make it to the mainland and I suppose I would have to concede."

Interesting, but not exactly what Seto had in mind when he asked the question. "You don't have phones that can contact the mainland?"

"I do, but they are all locked away."

"If Bakura can get out of his cage, he could probably pick your lock."

"True, true. But remember, Kaiba-boy, that scenario involves you knowing where the phones are locked away, getting not just yourself out of this room, but also Bakura, who had to be relocated once again. And even assuming you can get any authority figure to get a warrant to search my private land, I could have you all hidden away by that time."

So getting to the mainland was really their only choice. Pegasus had to have a helicopter around so they could make the trip, or at least a few boats. They would have tracking devices in them, surely, but with a head start, Pegasus wouldn't be able to catch up in time. Well, unless he did once they made it to the other shore. Seto would have to be seen publicly, and probably by the police before Pegasus would back off. Seto wouldn't be surprised if he made it to the docks on the mainland only to find a group of Pegasus's men there waiting to drag him back.

"Okay, I have another hypothetical."

Pegasus chuckled and nodded.

"Your plan works. We all stay here, never try to escape, never go anywhere, never try anything. You get the trust you have been wanting. How do the rest of our lives play out?"

"Are you considering staying?"

"As much as I hate giving you credit for things, this room is impenetrable. You might even say it was airtight."

Pegasus laughed, odd considering as how Bakura had just broken out, but it could have been a nervous habit or a defensive act.

"My castle and island will become your playground. What's mine is yours and all that jazz."

"You expect me to live a life devoted to entertainment?" Seto asked.

"After working so hard for so long, I thought you would like a break."

"I like working. I'm good at what I do. Creating software is enjoyable for me. I will not enjoy beach days with the Geek Squad or painting sunsets."

"What about studying?"

"There's no point if I can't apply it to anything."

Pegasus hmmed and nodded again. "I would offer to let you work, honestly. But I feel like if I did, you would assume I brought you here for KaibaCorp, which isn't true. It wouldn't feel right letting you do anything for KC or I2."

"In my scenario, we were all trusting of each other. Even in that case?"

"Even then. I'm aware of how feeble any trust you could build would be. Aside from Little Mokuba, I doubt you trust anyone fully."

"Then I have no reason to want to trust you. I have nothing to earn from getting out of this room."

"Little Mokuba is going to be waiting on you."

"Will you stop using him as leverage against me? He's thirteen. He isn't some pawn in the grand scheme of things necessary to dictate my actions."

Pegasus checked his watch, and from his expression, Seto knew that his time was up. All of the emotions Seto had noted from Pegasus during their conversation, the amusement, irritation, interest, had all faded into exhaustion. He was slow to tug back down his sleeve and slow to pick up Seto's plate from two days before.

Seto had nothing else to say to him, so he was content to let Pegasus walk away without any more tacked on to the end of their exchange. Seto felt the exhaustion evident on Pegasus's features, and thought he might be able to fall back asleep, after finishing his coffee, of course.

"Tell me," Pegasus said. He had already stepped over to the intercom, his finger hovering over the button out of Seto's sight. "Did you help Bakura?"

"I did."

Giving Seto his final nod, he turned off the speaker and left.


	6. Chapter 6

They didn't play chess for a while. Pegasus brought Seto his meals and stayed for the appropriate measure of time, but unless Seto asked a question, Pegasus stayed silent. And it was the silence of the room and from his only source of company that put Seto on edge. At least Pegasus's prattle had served to give Seto something to listen to. Without anything else, he could hear his own breaths echoing and his blood pulsing in his ears.

He was going to be as insane as Pegasus before this was all over.

Seto counted out the days and knew that they had made it to a weekend, the fifth in his time here. The weekends meant over an hour with Pegasus, and without chess as a buffer, Seto thought it would be spent in silence made all the worse by Pegasus's presence.

Pegasus arrived to turn up the lights and didn't give Seto the greeting that he had let himself grow used to, even after all the days without a word. Instead, Pegasus walked over to the chair without turning on the speaker and set down Seto's plate, along with a water bottle.

He stared at Seto thoughtfully, with the corner of his lips pinched. Pegasus's arms were crossed and his fingers tapped idly against his arm.

Without anyway to talk to Pegasus, Seto just waited. He wondered if this was Pegasus's new method to beat Seto into submission – refuse to let Seto talk at all. After all, what did Pegasus need Seto for when he had six other people to visit?

He could drive Seto to the point of begging if he wanted to. With the intercom turned off, Seto had no way of asking about Mokuba or working out more details of his situation. He couldn't do anything to get out of the room without being able to communicate, and by not pushing a button, Pegasus could take away every ounce of struggle Seto had.

But after a few minutes of glaring, Pegasus turned on the intercom.

"Your brother asked me to tell you that his birthday is in three months."

"And?" Seto asked. He masked his relief that his assumptions had been false, or maybe Pegasus had just wanted Seto to be aware of how little fight he actually had.

"That was it. I suppose he wants you to behave until then."

Three months wasn't as long as the years Pegasus had promised. In comparison, it sounded almost too easy. "Would you let me see him?"

"You helped Bakura," Pegasus said. His voice was far from the childish act he so often put on, but sounded genuine in his irritation.

"I pointed. He didn't even turn on the intercom. You can't really fault me for that when I didn't even bother hiding it from you."

"You aided in an escape attempt the first chance you got. Hardly worthy of trust."

Seto stood up to lean against the wall by the bookshelf and the glass. He was tired of sitting and his legs were tired from too much rest.

"I didn't even know he was trying to escape. For all I knew, you had invited him here for tea and mindless chatter and he got lost on the way to the bathroom."

"I don't see how you expect me to trust you when you turn on me at the first opportunity."

"I don't see how you expect anyone to trust you when you kidnapped us. I'm being civil enough. I'd say I am far more trustworthy than someone who kidnaps people to get what they want."

"Didn't you also kidnap Yugi's grandfather?"

Seto shook his head, somehow not surprised that subject had been brought up. "Barely. Borrowed is a more accurate word. It isn't like I kept him locked away. He was with me for like an hour."

"He ended up in the hospital after that, didn't he?"

"We played cards. The shock of losing caused a heart attack."

"You say that so casually."

Pegasus wasn't acting casual. He normally sat in the chair or leaned against the wall, but today he had chosen to stand in the center of the hallway, his back as straight as his expression.

"It happened. I'm not denying that it did. It was however, very long ago."

"By that rationale, everything I did during Duelist Kingdom is now forgivable."

"I didn't say what I did was forgivable. Had someone done to me what I did to Moto's grandfather, I still would carry the grudge. They're just a bunch of morons incapable of practical resentment."

"You've gotten me off the subject of trust."

Seto didn't want to get back on the subject, so he kept his mouth shut. He didn't speak again until Pegasus initiated it.

"What is it going to take?" Pegasus asked. "For you to trust me and not want to leave?"

"I'm always going to want to leave. I don't understand what kind of trust you want from me. I mean, I'm never going to trust you with Mokuba. I don't trust your intentions for bringing us here. I don't trust you with KaibaCorp."

"You have to trust me to get out of this room," Pegasus said. His tone was harsh, more so than Seto had ever heard from him before. Even during Duelist Kingdom, when Pegasus had spent a large amount of his time threatening people, his voice had been light.

"I don't see how you expect that to happen."

They both had their arms crossed and all attempts at humor and sarcasm had faded away. It had the feel of a business meeting, which Seto was far more comfortable with than that faked friendship of the past few weeks.

"Because I'm all you have down here, Seto. We're starting over," Pegasus said, throwing out Seto's name again like he had a right to it.

"And I should do that just because you are telling me to?"

"You don't have a choice. You can either befriend me or you can stay in your fishbowl for the rest of your life," Pegasus said.

"You don't even like me," Seto said.

"I like you fine. But all you need to be concerned about is getting to know me. You haven't even tried."

"I don't care about you. You are just a means to an end for me. Why ask me to play along when you know that I just want to get Mokuba and leave?"

"Until I'm convinced that you aren't just playing along, you stay put. It's your choice."

"It doesn't sound like much of a choice."

Pegasus's gaze settled even more heavily on Seto. "It's really just an illusion of one."

Seto hated how much he appreciated the honesty. He had started to think that Pegasus would keep all his true intentions hidden behind his odd flattery and nicknames until Seto couldn't take it anymore. The truth was refreshing in its horror.

"So you understand how infinitely I loathe you."

"That will change in time. And time's all we have."

Seto was sick of those words and of Pegasus's voice. He was ready to give up on the notion of time and learn how some people were able to sleep for days. He was tired of learning to speak a language he would never need and tired of pacing his small space just so his muscles didn't atrophy.

After weeks, Seto was exhausted of metaphorically beating against the glass wall. It didn't mean that he was done, but his resolve was cracking. If it was so obvious to Seto, it had to be to Pegasus.

"Let's talk about your godparents," Pegasus said after several minutes of silence.

"Why not start with an easy subject? Maybe that time I was in a coma or my parents' funerals."

"Don't change the subject."

"I hardly spoke to them," Seto said. He understood that Pegasus could leave or just keep the speakers turned off. The meal Pegasus had brought was still on the other side of the glass. Talking about his godparents was unpleasant, but not as condemning as the Gozaburo days. Seto could tolerate it to an extent.

"They left me to raise Mokuba and once the inheritance, little as it was, had been spent, we were shipped off to an orphanage home."

"How long were you with them?"

"A year? Year and a half?"

"And that's all you have to say about them?"

Seto stopped leaning against the wall and moved a touch closer to the glass, reminded of the anger he was trying to repress and that Pegasus was trying to bring out. He wasn't used to having to quell his anger in order to keep someone else happy, and that just made him all the more annoyed.

"What would you like me to say?" Seto managed to say without sounding too enraged. And since it would obviously end up going Pegasus's way because Seto had no choice in his own life anymore, Seto decided to humor Pegasus.

"I want you to be honest."

Honest like Pegasus had been? Fine.

"About what? How it made me feel to be trapped somewhere with no way out? How I had to constantly worry about my brother? How much I hated them for treating us like we were just there to support them?"

Pegasus frowned, so Seto thought he was heading in the right direction with his forced honesty.

"Is that what you want me to say? How many similarities between you and them do I need to draw before you understand why this is not the appropriate setting to discuss those people?"

"You seem like you need to vent."

"I seem like I need to vent," Seto muttered, not caring if he was speaking loud enough for Pegasus to hear. "I don't want to vent to you. I don't want anything to do with you. You are the epitome my detestation of mankind. This relationship you want to build isn't working because it can't work. Your premise was wrong and I can't give in to it."

"My premise?"

"Bring in seven people, all of whom hate you, and make them into your companions. It's an absurd notion. And while some people, maybe Moto or Gardner, might find it in them to forgive you, I am not going to be able to. So own up to the fact that I'm here so you could take KaibaCorp or because you really wanted Mokuba but knew he would never cave without me."

"You're reaching."

"In the right direction," Seto said, taking a step closer to Pegasus, putting him as close to the glass as he could comfortably stand. "There is no way that you actually thought you would be able to get me to cooperate with you, no matter how long I'm here."

"You will."

"I won't. Especially not with this reward system nonsense you are spewing. Why don't you just admit that you plan on holding Mokuba over my head until I fall into line?"

"I'm not."

"Of course you are. His presence here is doing that."

Pegasus shrugged. "Doesn't seem like you're falling into line even after I mentioned Mokuba wanting to see you for his birthday."

"I'm not going to let you use us against each other. If that was your plan, you might as well just let us go."

"I expected you to be mad. I expected you to fight this. This isn't going to be easy for either of us."

It seemed like that was Seto's argument for why he should be let go. Seto was only more annoyed by Pegasus reversing his own points back on him. He supposed that meant that he would just have to come up with new arguments in his unlimited time.

"You can't actually expect us to stay here forever."

"Why not?" Pegasus said, as if it wasn't apparent.

"How do you see this working? Sure, right now it seems more feasible because we are all younger. That won't always be the case."

"Actually, Kaiba-boy, I think you and Little Mokuba are the youngest."

"That's not what I'm saying. Do you really picture us all sitting around in our fifties, you in your sixties, drinking wine and chatting amicably? This romanticized version of kidnapping that you have is farcical. You have literally ripped seven people out of their lives just because you are too incompetent to establish any lasting relationships of note."

"Are you finished?"

"I doubt I will be finished until we are out of this madhouse."

"But for the time being?"

Seto shook his head, but said, "I suppose."

"Good, then sit."

The mood of the conversation shifted just like that, and now Pegasus seemed to be calling the shots and ready to pass out the insults as Seto had been. Seto could have said no to Pegasus's demand for him to go back to the bed, but Pegasus must have seen Seto's desire to refuse, because he went back over to the panel on the wall and held his finger over what was likely the intercom power button.

So Seto grudgingly stepped over to the bed to sit against the edge.

Pegasus crossed his arms again, but stayed on the side of the glass by the button, like he was saying that he could silence Seto at any moment. Pegasus had to have realized that threats worked better on Seto than the rewards. It was about time he started taking this seriously.

"I will allow your passive hate, but not this open degradation of my character," Pegasus said. "I don't mind that you hate me. There is no need to remind me of the fact that all seven of you hate me. You are well within your rights to do so."

His voice lowered even more, to a pitch Seto hadn't thought possible for Pegasus.

"I expect your hate to remain passive. I brought you here knowing what an abrasive personality you have, and I can accept it to a length. An occasional snarky comment or jab I'll permit, but any more than that and I'll reconsider your living arrangements."

As much Seto hated the glass room, he doubted a down-grade would be as comfortable. It would also mean losing the books he had, even if he did hate them all, and quite possibly the heat.

Seto suspected that it would also reset his good-behavior clock to zero.

"Then I propose a trade," Seto said. He used his arms to prop up his body, leaning back on them as they rested palms down against the comforter.

"I'm listening."

"I play along and tone down the hatred, and you bring me evidence that Mokuba is fine at least once a week. Evidence other than your word."

"That's using my reward system," Pegasus said, bringing up that know-it-all finger again.

"Like I said, playing along."

"Fine," Pegasus said. The answer came after quite a bit of thought.

Seto didn't know if he was relieved that he would be able to keep up with Mokuba's well-being, or bothered by the fact that he had just agreed to play nice with his kidnapper. It was probably a mixture of the two, although how much of each was lost on Seto.

"Now then," Pegasus said, uncrossing his arms and losing the dark tone. "You're hungry, I assume."

The plates were switched and the hatch locked again. Seto was hungry, but he still hadn't gotten around to eating with Pegasus present. The meal would have to wait, which luckily, was another salad that could hold up to the wait.

"So, we've got a bit of time," Pegasus said. He was back to how he had been before the Bakura escape, which Seto hoped meant he wasn't back to square one on his timeline. "-How about we play chess?"


	7. Chapter 7

"Good morning, Kaiba-boy."

Seto sat in that same spot between the bathroom and bedroom. He had been rereading one of the French books, but was far more interested in Pegasus than reading basic French sentences for the fourteenth time. He glanced back and saw that along with his breakfast, Pegasus had brought a stack of books. Pegasus didn't relock the hatch.

"Come over here."

Pegasus sat on the floor, his pant legs riding up a bit to reveal brightly colored socks, and he held up the hatch door with a hand. His other hand brought a phone out of his suit jacket. Seto glared at the phone, annoyed that he could be so close and still be unable to reach it. But he was curious and bored, so Seto got to his feet and walked over, taking a seat across from Pegasus.

"I doubt the speakers will be able to hear this," Pegasus said while he ran his thumb over his screen. "So we will both need to be quiet for the duration. I'll only play it once."

Seto nodded and leaned forward, keeping his gaze on the phone rather than on Pegasus. A few seconds later, Pegasus pressed the screen against the glass, close to the opening so the sound could come through.

"Why are you filming me?"

It was Mokuba's voice, even if it was faint and difficult to make out. Seto watched the screen, where the video had recorded a slow shot of a bedroom, complete with bookshelves, a desk, a bed, and the barred window Pegasus had mentioned. The shot landed on Mokuba sitting in an armchair with an open book in his lap.

"Your brother finally guessed that you were here. Silly boy needs proof."

Mokuba was fine. He was dressed in a similar outfit to Seto's, and had his hair pulled back so Seto could clearly see his face. He didn't look like he was hurt, so Pegasus hadn't been lying.

"You didn't show me a video," Mokuba said. His tone sounded ready for an argument.

"Your levels of faith are obviously much different than each other's. Now, say hi to Kaiba-boy."

"I'm not addressing a camera."

Seto smirked. If Mokuba was speaking to Pegasus so casually, then he must truly have been fine. If he was being forced into the video, then he would have said something to Seto, tried to get a message through. And the wide shot of the room had to be Pegasus's way of proving that Mokuba was in a nicer space than Seto.

"Then I suppose this is enough. How about a close-up?"

The camera moved toward Mokuba quickly, accompanied by a "Stop!" where Mokuba clearly shoved the phone out of his face, because the picture blurred and the video ended.

Pegasus pocketed the phone, stood, and took a step away from the glass.

"Do you believe me know?" he asked.

Seto stood as well. "I do."

"Good. I didn't bring you a coffee this morning. It was that or the video, and I figured you'd prefer seeing Little Mokuba."

"Why did it have to be one or the other?" Seto asked, but didn't receive an answer. He picked up the plate to set it on the middle shelf of his bookcase. The new books waiting on him were all language guides, but at a more intermediate level than he had before. One was a textbook, so Seto flipped through those pages, finding all the spots for answers filled in.

"The answers are all correct, by the way. I made sure of that."

Seto left the books on his bed. He could hardly focus on them when he had just seen a video of Mokuba. He wanted to be able to watch it again, to look for anything he might have missed the first time, but assumed that was the reason Pegasus had set the limit to once.

"Mokuba doesn't love reading," Seto said. "He would rather have a deck of cards or a sketch book."

"I didn't know he liked to draw."

Seto nodded. "I didn't say he was very good."

Seto knew that Pegasus was an artist, after all, the designs of all the duel monsters were his, and Seto thought that he might have caved to that request out of appreciation for Mokuba's similar hobby. If the books Mokuba had been given were anything like Seto's, then he would have been bored out of his mind.

"So you're petitioning for him instead of yourself now?"

"My own requests haven't much gone anywhere."

"I got you video evidence of your brother's safety, per your request. Glasses per your request. Heat per your request. More books per your request. You're just being finicky because I'm not letting you have everything you want."

"Heat should not be on that list, or glasses, unless you wanted me to be blind."

"My point, Kaiba-boy, is that you asked and I followed through. And not even just on the easy things. We had to make a flight back to the mainland for your glasses, and then again for the duct and the glass cutter."

"You're telling me you made a glass cage and didn't think to keep a glass cutter handy?"

"There were some oversights made," Pegasus said, lifting a hand dismissively.

Seto scoffed and sat on the edge of the bed. "It's been a couple of weeks since you kidnapped me."

"It has."

"Do I get to clean this space? Sheets are supposed to be washed weekly. There is no vent in the bathroom, so I'll need to keep it clean to prevent mold from building up."

"Laundry," Pegasus said. He clicked his teeth together a few times, and Seto didn't understand the amount of thought that had to go through his decision. The sheets on the bed would fit through the hatch, and it wasn't like Pegasus didn't bring Seto a change of clothes every other day. Maybe it was the idea of giving Seto cleaning products that really bothered him, or the fact that he hadn't thought to get an extra set of sheets.

"I'll get some more sheets," Pegasus said.

"And for the bathroom?"

"I'll do some research on cleaning products that won't eat through glass or combine to create any sort of gas."

Seto couldn't help rolling his eyes at Pegasus's unnecessary precaution, but ended up feeling his lips twitching up. "Why would I want to create any sort of fumes that could kill me? And most cleaning products can't eat through glass."

"Even so, it might be a day or two before I give in to that one. But I understand the necessity of keeping it clean."

"Or, you could just let me go stay with Mokuba."

"I told you that was where you would end up. Patience, Kaiba-boy."

"What about the others?" Seto asked. "Are they on your reward system as well?"

"For the most part. I've got a couple troublemakers in that group who won't be getting any rewards any time soon."

"Worse than me?"

"Most definitely," Pegasus said. "You're nothing compared to them."

Seto actually laughed, more out of shock than amusement. "Oh really? I find it hard to believe that any member of the Dork Squad is actually putting up too much of a fight."

"Mr. Wheeler seems to have reverted to his days on the streets. Would you believe he actually threw a punch at me? And our Ryou-"

"Escaping again?"

"Ryou is not. That spirit on the other hand," Pegasus said, letting his words trail away.

Seto had seen too many unexplainable things having the Geek Squad tag along to his life to deny that there might have been a spirit living in Bakura's body. Yugi too, he supposed. Either that or both of them had some rare form of multiple personality disorder, which seemed almost as unlikely as the spirit theory.

"If I'm in a cage like this, I assume that you have them in something similar."

"They were in nicer accommodations, but after a half dozen escape attempts, I had to demote them. I don't like doing that. As odd as it may be, this isn't supposed to be a negative experience."

"You would think that isolating people on an island would be enough of an imprisonment."

"People unexperienced with my particular group of visitors might think that. You could probably build a helicopter out of my television."

Seto rubbed his jaw. "Maybe not your television. Now if I got your microwave-" Seto paused when Pegasus looked genuinely concerned that Seto could build a helicopter out of a microwave. "I'm a software designer. I don't actually build the hardware to accompany it."

That seemed to calm Pegasus down somewhat. "I don't know, Kaiba-boy. You always seem so capable of everything."

"Better than seeming incompetent. Do you visit Mokuba before or after me?"

"Typically after. He's a nice breath of fresh air."

"That is probably to do with the window."

"You know, you can be quite clever when you aren't so condescending. Is that a defense mechanism?"

"Hasn't it been five minutes?"

Pegasus checked his watch. "Ah. I suppose you are right. Are we playing chess tonight?"

Seto agreed to a match, so Pegasus left with the video of Mokuba and Seto's dinner plate. The speakers went silent and Seto's gaze idly drifted over to the plate he had left on his bookshelf. It was the same breakfast as the day before – a piece of toast, scrambled eggs, and bacon – but there were two protein bars in the wrappers. It had to be because of his lunch comment from all that time ago, which meant that there was another thing Pegasus could add to the list of demands Seto had made and had been given.

He took them off the plate and slid them up on the top shelf, back out of the way where the camera couldn't see them. No matter what Pegasus said about not intending to punish Seto, he had disproven that fact when he admitted to moving Wheeler and Bakura to worse cells. At least if Seto suspected Pegasus of drugging his food, he would have a stash to tide him through. He would just have to start collecting any sealed foods he was given. And if Bakura managed to escape again and kept Pegasus from visiting Seto for another day, Seto wouldn't end up going hungry.

Seto played through the video of Mokuba, mentally as there was no other way, dozens of times over the next few days. If Mokuba was hurt or in trouble, he would have found some way to let Seto know. Nothing stood out from Mokuba's word choices, but maybe there had been some hand gesture or expression Seto had been supposed to catch.

But as hard as he tried to remember, he couldn't. There wasn't anything notable about the video, except that Mokuba had been in it. While he hadn't looked happy, the depression Pegasus had mentioned was absent. Maybe that meant Mokuba had gotten a touch more comfortable, or just knowing that Seto finally knew he was there helped.

Because Mokuba had to know that even if Seto wanted to fight Pegasus forever, arguing until he died in the glass cage, he wouldn't for Mokuba's sake. It wasn't like Seto could just leave Mokuba up there alone. That would be too infinitely selfish.

Which meant that he had to get along with Pegasus no matter what. It couldn't have been more than a month or so, but Seto was already preparing to cave to Pegasus's request of companionship. It wasn't like Seto was left with much of a choice, but he certainly would have held out longer if not for Mokuba. And Pegasus had mentioned years in the cage. That wasn't an option.

-x-

After waking up at midnight a few days later, Seto cleaned his bathroom. Pegasus had brought down a few things Seto could use, a scrub brush, rag, and an all-natural cleaner that smelled like Christmas, but was apparently chemical-free and safe to touch or even to consume. Seto had already cleaned the bathroom right after Pegasus had brought down the items, choosing to use the bathroom light to stay up later in hopes of sleeping longer, but it wouldn't hurt to clean the entire room once more. He hoped that scrubbing it down again would use enough energy that he could fall back asleep. Reading through the nights was getting old.

It must have worked, because after cleaning every inch of his space, Seto collapsed back into bed, hardly remembering to take off his glasses, and woke up to "How are you the one person on this earth who doesn't wake up with bedhead?" in place of Pegasus's usual greeting.

Seto sat up, grabbed his glasses, and looked up to Pegasus, who had the normal plate with him, but a triumphant smirk that was a little out of the ordinary. And then Pegasus didn't make a move to open the hatch to switch out the plates, which interested Seto.

"What?" Seto asked.

"I found it."

"Found what?"

A hand moved from its hold on the plate, and Seto watched as Pegasus shoved his hand against the glass. But there was something between the two.

"Does this mean you are going to give it to me?" Seto asked. He could see Mokuba's little face staring back at him, and assumed the it Pegasus had referred to was the locket he had stolen from Seto.

"I'd like a trade."

"More information about my allergies?"

Pegasus laughed. "No, nothing like that. I have a hypothetical situation for you, and I'd like it answered to the best of your ability."

"Fine," Seto said, getting out of the bed only to take a seat on the edge. Pegasus really should have thought to leave a chair in the room for Seto so he wasn't constantly sitting on the floor. The edge of the bed was hardly a step up.

"So I have my business and there is a company I partner with on a regular occasion," Pegasus started, kneeling down to open the hatch. "Both companies have been on splendid terms with each other, but now, Company B, otherwise known as not-the-main-company-in-question, is starting to steal business from Company A."

The picture didn't come through with the plate, so Seto guessed he would actually have to play along before Pegasus believed him. It was the issue of trust again, and that in the last month, none had been gained.

"How much business is being stolen?"

"It has risen to a significant amount. Noteworthy, one might say."

"Is the business being lost more costly than the partnership is bringing in?"

"Yes, but keep in mind, these companies have been partners for years."

Seto huffed and wondered how Pegasus had managed to keep Industrial Illusions above the red if he thought this hypothetical was difficult. "It doesn't matter if they are lifelong partners. Business can't take that into account. The lost money has to come from somewhere, and I would rather it be Company B than the pockets of my employees."

The picture came through. Seto didn't move to grab it as not to seem paranoid that Pegasus would take it back at any second. He would rather have the entire locket, but he could settle with the photograph.

"Thank you, Kaiba-boy, for indulging me."

"Do I get to know the purpose of your hypothetical?"

Pegasus shook his head and dropped into the chair under the light fixture. The motion bumped the chess set on the floor, but to Seto, it was silent. The intercom must not have been able to pick up on the quiet clatter of the pieces clinking inside.

"How's Mokuba?" Seto asked, because the video hadn't told him much about Mokuba's actual well-being, and it hadn't been a full week yet, so Seto hadn't gotten any more evidence.

"He's doing well."

"You had said that he was depressed and anxious."

"The anxiety is wearing away. I think knowing that you know he is here is helping. Now that he is eating-"

"He hadn't been?"

Pegasus held up that trademark finger, just lightly touching his index to his jaw. "Peanut allergy. I suppose I should that you for that information."

It didn't surprise Seto that Mokuba didn't tell Pegasus himself. Since Pegasus made it clear to Seto that he wasn't planning to harm them, Seto felt confident he had done the same for Mokuba. In order to get what he wanted, Mokuba would stop eating, and if pressured into it, he might end up getting sick since peanuts had a way of sneaking into the majority of food products and factories. If he got sick, Pegasus might have to get him to a hospital, although he had mentioned keeping a doctor on staff.

"Is he asking about me?" Seto said. After watching the video of Mokuba refusing to address Seto through a camera, it cast a flicker of doubt in Seto's mind. They were technically prisoners even if their jailer was trying to be pleasant about it, and Mokuba had been kidnapped enough times to have settled into a routine of how to act. That routine might have involved not talking about Seto, just like Seto had tried not to talk about Mokuba.

"Oh yes. He asks at least once a visit when he can see you."

"When can he?"

"He gets the same answer you do."

"Fine," Seto said. If Pegasus could pose a hypothetical, so could Seto. "What if you feel he deserves it before I do? You said that you weren't looking to punish or threaten us, but keeping him from seeing me just because you don't feel I'm trustworthy enough would certainly be punishment to Mokuba."

"You think highly of yourself, don't you Kaiba-boy? Punishing Mokuba by not letting him see you. Honestly, you'd think you were some old married couple."

Seto's nose wrinkled in disgust at the idea, but he let it slide in favor of getting his answer. "I raised him. I am basically his father, not to mention his only living family. Let's throw best friend into the mix as well. How about most-trusted person? Should I go on?"

"That's cute. You try so hard to seem indifferent about your love for your brother."

"My personal relations are no one else's concern. I have nothing to prove."

"Except that I can trust you?"

"Answer my question. Would you keep Mokuba from seeing me?"

"I'm hoping that it won't come to that. Our trust may grow at similar paces," Pegasus said, his voice hopeful.

"You're painting with him. Sounds like you are getting along."

"And we are playing chess together."

Seto lifted a shoulder in a shrug that was meant to mask the fact that Pegasus was right and Seto didn't have a retort to cut down that notion. Chess hadn't been intended as a bonding activity, but more as an excuse not to do so. Although, Seto did notice that they talked through most of their games, which were short and ill-fought on Pegasus's part.

"Oh," Pegasus said, looking down at his watch. "Our time's up."

"Who is right after me?"

Pegasus stood and carried the plate with him. "Our poor Ryou. Wish me luck."

"Then I would have to wish him the same."

Seto couldn't hear Pegasus's exhale, but it was a heavy enough breath that he could see the lapels on Pegasus's suit move. At least Pegasus didn't have on that red suit Seto had seen him wear so frequently. Most of the suits were black or grey, with just the occasional odd color. The red suit always brought back memories of Gozaburo, and Seto had enough going on without having those flashbacks to deal with.

Pegasus bid Seto a dramatic farewell before turning off the intercom. The room fell into silence without even the heat on to create any sound. Seto caught his foot tapping against the bed frame just so there was something to hear. Without the dull rhythm, it was like Seto had lost the ability to hear. Instead of a clock, he needed a radio or a noise machine, really anything that produced sound.

There weren't any outlets in Seto's room, but surely Pegasus could spare some batteries.

The breakfast waiting on Seto wasn't hot, just a box of dry cereal, an apple, and a protein shake, so Seto picked it up off the floor and moved it to the bookshelf. He grabbed Mokuba's picture at the same time, and with nowhere better to display it, it ended up on the shelf as well, up next to the small stack of protein bars Seto had collected. He held up the picture for a few seconds first, reminding his mind of the picture he had seen so many times in the past.

There had to be a way out of this room in under a year. Seto couldn't just leave Mokuba upstairs, or wherever he was in the castle, and alone for however long it took Pegasus to realize that Seto wouldn't try anything without Mokuba being safe.

Having slept more than normal and having a picture of Mokuba watching, Seto found himself filled with energy that he couldn't explain or will away. Under a normal circumstance, he would have gone for a jog or went down to his gym, but he had fifty square feet of space and a camera watching him.

So with nothing better to do, he decided to take a shower so he could clean it again.


	8. Chapter 8

Pegasus hummed the _Funny Bunny_ intro while setting up the cart full of meals. He couldn't think of a better way to prepare for the day than to watch Ruff Ruff McDogg get foiled yet again. He wondered if Little Mokuba considered himself too old to enjoy the wild shenanigans that Funny Bunny constantly found himself caught up in.

The bottom row of the cart had a portable salamander to keep the meals warm, those for Téa, Yugi-boy, and Little Mokuba, who didn't mind eating whatever they were brought. The top two rows were all meals better eaten at room temperature, one side just had protein bars and water bottles, for those who were still stubborn after two months, Kaiba-boy, Mr. Devlin, and the troublesome Joseph. Poor Ryou and that spirit who just wouldn't back down fell into that category by default.

Pegasus pushed the cart out of the kitchen, assuring Croquet again that yes, he was capable of wheeling a cart around his own home, and then headed down the hall for Yugi's room. When he had come up with the order of his visits, it was based on personal preference. But after having to move people and shift their rooms, his path involved traipsing across three different floors, taking the elevator up and down. He had debated multiple times changing the order of his visits to better accommodate the layout of his home in relation to where his guests were located, but wanted to keep on the same routine, not just for his sake, but for the others.

He knocked on Yugi's door before sliding the locks out of place. He left the cart out of Yugi's sight, just carrying in his plate, warm to the touch.

"Good morning, Yugi-boy," Pegasus said, adding the extra touch of brightness he knew Yugi needed.

Yugi sat by his barred window, playing some game with his duel monsters cards. Pegasus had given them back a few weeks ago, but the random stacks Yugi built with them didn't seem like much of a game. Pegasus ached for the days of his Eye when he could just take a peer inside to see what was motivating that little mind.

"Pegasus," he said, although not impolitely.

Locking the door behind him with the key Pegasus kept in his breast pocket, he walked the plate over to Yugi's table and collected the silverware and cup he had brought in with dinner the previous night.

"Did you like that manga I brought before?"

Yugi shrugged. "It wasn't as good as _Kuroshituji_."

"It seems that is my one to beat. I don't suppose you'll tell me if you have any preferences?"

"None in particular."

Yugi's sadness in from his situation could have been avoided if only he would ask the right questions. He hadn't gotten around to asking if anyone else was there with him, which had seemed to help, or maybe just affect the moods of those who had figured it out. Poor Ryou knew because he had run by Kaiba-boy on that awful day. Mokuba knew that his brother was somewhere in the castle. Kaiba-boy had done the math to figure it out. Téa had asked before anything else, and the sedative hadn't taken to Devlin, so he remembered most of the day Pegasus had them brought over.

That left Yugi with no idea, or at least none that had been vocalized, and Joey clueless through his constant screaming. Or perhaps they both knew and just hadn't said anything. The reports Pegasus had received after the day of the convention had said that Kaiba and Mokuba and been in the car, Yugi had just been leaving a dueling platform, and the others had stepped out of the arena. Yugi might suspect, but if Joey remembered, Pegasus felt certain it would have worked its way in through the continual shouting.

"I could bring you a normal set of cards. It might be easier to play solitaire that way."

"I'm not playing solitaire."

Maybe it wasn't a game and he was just sorting them into their various types. The stacks could have been his personal favorites or maybe just odd combinations to pass the time. Pegasus walked over to the window seat to more closely observe Yugi's cards.

"Then what are you doing? I could bring my own cards in to play you sometime."

"I'm sorting out strategies. I don't need to play anything."

Getting through to Yugi would be a lot easier if he would give Pegasus an opening to start a relationship. Even Kaiba played chess with him, although that was just an unsubtle method to interact without talking. But at least Yugi hadn't tried to run, unlike some of the others.

Pegasus just hated how depressed Yugi had become. The travesty of it all was almost enough for Pegasus to tell him that his friends were living just a few doors away from him, but that wasn't how it worked. Yugi needed to figure it out on his own. And if Pegasus mentioned it first, certainly Yugi would believe it was a prelude to actually getting to see them. If Yugi was told about them and then not allowed to see them, it might only worsen the depression.

"Have you come up with anything new?" Pegasus asked.

"No. I know my cards."

"Yes, I'm well aware of that," Pegasus said, thinking back to their duel at the finals of his tournament, when Yugi had managed to win without knowing half the cards he put into play.

"When will you give me back my Puzzle?"

The pernicious Puzzle was locked in a safe even more concealed than his troublemakers, occasionally accompanied by the Ring. The Ring had a bad habit of making its way back to Ryou, no matter what precautions Pegasus put in place to keep the two apart. The Ring had made it to India before last reappearing around poor Ryou's neck.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Yugi-boy. You would mind crush your way right out of here."

"It's an island," Yugi said with a glance out the window. "How would I get out?"

Pegasus checked his watch and found his time running out. He would have to think through yet another tactic to get Yugi to open up to him, which was just another item on his list to sort out. The children were far more complicated than he had given them credit for.

"Sorry now, I have to be going. Do you need me to bring you anything tonight?"

Yugi just shook his head, but slid off the window seat to shuffle over to the table. Pegasus took away the old dish and brought the key out of his pocket. He had other stops to make, and as much as he wanted to stay so Yugi wouldn't be alone for hours, the others were waiting.

He gave Yugi a goodbye and watched for a moment as Yugi pushed around the scrambled eggs with a loosely-held fork. It was almost enough to make Pegasus give up this charade and just throw Yugi into the room with Téa, who had been equally good. Well, Mokuba had been the best out of all of them, but Pegasus wasn't quite ready to give up Mokuba's attention.

Pegasus locked the door behind him and put Yugi's old plate on the cart. His next trip was still on the same hall, but past Téa's room and through a layer of security. Duke had made a few attempts at getting out, but none genius enough to have worked. It mostly involved working at the bars on the windows or trying to pick the locks.

Because of the rebellions, as minor as they were, Duke's room now had an additional door outside that needed an access code to get through, although the code was just 0422 – his and Cecelia's anniversary – it would stump him long enough for someone monitoring the cameras to catch on.

The cart was left outside the security door, and Pegasus grabbed a plate from the top of the tray. He had been nice in bringing Duke a new book the day before, but Duke didn't act like he much cared for reading. He hadn't taken to the playing cards either, and Pegasus couldn't bring himself to hand over anything else that might aid Duke's futile escape attempts.

"Good morning, Mr. Devlin."

Duke lifted a finger and went back to his position of lying on the floor with his feet up on his bed and his hands folded together on his chest. What limited sources of entertainment he had were all pushed into a corner.

"You'll drive yourself mad if you do nothing all day," Pegasus said.

"Then we'll have that in common."

"I'm eccentric, not mad. We've gone over this before."

"You kidnapped us. An eccentric person might just have a life-sized painting of people he was obsessed with, not kidnap them from a convention."

Pegasus reminded himself that Duke hadn't been there when Kaiba and Mokuba were taken, so he might not have known about them. As far as Duke knew, "people" just included his personal group of friends, those who had been in his immediate area at the time - Joey, Téa, and Ryou. Duke had used his self-proclaimed "brilliant" investigatory skills to deduce Yugi's presence as well. Of course, Pegasus hadn't been on the boat ride over, so Duke might have seen the Kaiba brothers there, but their names hadn't come up.

But it wasn't like Pegasus could ask without giving himself away.

"But a painting wouldn't give me such delightful company."

"Yeah, I bet we're all just peaches. You just tell me when Joey stops cussing you out every time you see him, then I'll think about warming up."

Pegasus hadn't actually told Duke that Joey was profane during their visits, but Duke certainly knew him better than Pegasus had gotten to. That was fine. In time, they would all have accepted him and these early days of struggle would be casual fire-side stories.

He smiled at the thought of all of them surrounding a beach bonfire, with Yugi-boy and Téa sharing a stick to roast marshmallows, Joey and Ryou tossing a frisbee in the glow from the fire, and the Kaiba brothers stargazing while huddled under a shared quilt. It was a nice dream that Pegasus was determined to make a reality. Duke could find a way to fit in or stay in this room forever.

"I doubt you would believe me even when that day does come."

Duke snorted. "It's not coming. Might as well give up that fight. You'd have a better chance with Kaiba."

But that still didn't actually tell Pegasus if Duke knew Kaiba was actually there. Kaiba-boy seemed to be the boogieman of their group, regardless of how often he helped them. It made more sense to Pegasus now than it had before why Kaiba hated them so much.

"I'm actually quite charming," Pegasus said. "You'll come to see that eventually. I suppose you are an outdoorsy person?"

Duke looked at Pegasus with a raised eyebrow. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"I'm trying to decide why you are so unhappy with any form of entertainment. Is it because you prefer spending your days outside?"

"Yes," Duke said at length. "I prefer being outside."

That was an issue Pegasus didn't know how to handle. Duke's room had a window overlooking the back garden, but that clearly wasn't enough for him. And it wasn't like Pegasus could just let him roam the island for any length of time. Duke might grab a rock and try to bash Pegasus over the head with it. A boy with that level of tenacity might even try swimming back to the mainland.

"You will have to give me some time to consider that. I currently don't have any arrangements for outdoor excursions."

"'I've got nothing but time,'" Duke said in a stupid tone, which Pegasus realized was meant to be a mockery of his own.

Fifty-seven seconds remaining or not, Pegasus decided that Duke could do with some alone time. He left Duke's breakfast on the table and left without another word. Maybe the sudden departure was petty, but Pegasus had another stop before his next calm visitor, and he needed some patience left in him before his reboot.

His men couldn't have waited until Duke had left. They just had to go in with some worthless boy hanging around.

Pegasus collected himself and straightened his suit and then fixed his hair. It was all about being presentable, in control, and showing up to visit Joey while flustered would not help his attempts at winning over the boy.

As he pushed the cart, he thought about his use of the word "boy" to describe Duke and Joey. Their birthdays had been just before arriving at the island, the only two of Pegasus's visitors to have reached their twenties. Only Mokuba was really considered a child, and even then, he would be fourteen in a few months. The whole group would be having birthdays over the course of the summer and fall. Of course Pegasus planned to celebrate with each of them, even if he had missed Joey's back in January.

He wheeled the cart over to the elevator and pressed the call button. He thought about the upcoming birthday celebrations, from Yugi's in June, down to Kaiba-boy's in the fall. He was certain that none of them would want to celebrate, although he had been considering giving in to the one request Mokuba had made of him – "Please, just for my birthday then, let me see Seto. I've never gone this long without seeing him and I just, I miss him, okay?" – and taking Mokuba down to the basement to let them visit for a half hour or so.

Pegasus rode down to the dungeons and checked his watch. He was doing all right on his time. He had a telecom at eight to deal with some pressing KaibaCorp business, so he couldn't let himself grow distracted with any of his more entertaining guests. He could cut his next few stops down to four minutes rather than five to give himself a bit longer with little Mokuba.

But that wasn't fair. As much as he enjoyed spending time with Mokuba's innocence, the others needed him as well. And poor Ryou needed all the time Pegasus had to spare.

The elevator dinged as it opened up to the hallway outside the dungeons. When he had built a castle on an island, Pegasus had included dungeons because all practical castles had them, and it gave him secret passages - because all his favorite cartoons included secret tunnels - to traverse his entire island. But he never really intended to use them, but now found himself holding three people inside.

Okay, two people. Kaiba-boy was a floor up, but only because that glass wall needed to lift into the ceiling and the stone in the dungeon wasn't conducive for building.

Pegasus heard the chains rattling before he made it to Joey's cell. The lights in the hallway weren't bright enough to give him a clear view of everything, just decorative torches, electric, but designed to look like flames. Joey could be asleep, although since Pegasus visited twelve hours apart, his sleep schedule could be reversed.

"The hell you want?"

Pegasus had barely stepped into view before Joey addressed him. The bars of the cell were too close together to fit a plate through, which was fine since Joey was chained to the wall with chains too short to have reached the bars. Pegasus grabbed Joey's meal, a few protein bars, two bottles of water, and an apple, and tossed them over.

Joey caught them, only to lay them aside.

"The same as thing I do every morning, Mr. Wheeler. I'm here to talk."

"You're here to tell more lies. I ain't tellin' you nothing."

"Mr. Wheeler," Pegasus said, stepping closer to the bars because of the dimness of the space. But he was sure that Joey's eyes had adjusted after being kept down there for so long. "-Have I ever asked anything of you?"

"That's just your scheminess. Or maybe scumminess. Tell me what's happening or I swear I'll beat your ass when I get outta all this."

Pegasus told himself to be composed and almost regretted bringing Joey along with the rest. He had enough to manage with Ryou constantly escaping, and having Joey undermine him at every opportunity was growing old. But they all had to be there, all but the one who got away.

"Don't you want to move upstairs? I have a lovely room waiting for-"

"I don't want nothin' from you. There isn't no give or take here."

And Joey hadn't asked if the others were there, so Pegasus couldn't even offer information in trade like he had done to tame Kaiba's anger. It was just Pegasus and Joey, and that relationship was going nowhere. Joey had no books, no sources of entertainment, and yet he still fought back with more vigor than any of the others. Pegasus would have thought the darkness alone would have kept him in line.

At least Ryou was a lamb without the Ring, and Kaiba had logic to temper his rage. Joey was pure emotion, raw and unyielding.

"You must want something from me," Pegasus said. That something might have been to be released, but still, that was something.

"Not a thing."

Really, Joey could use an ounce of Kaiba's reasoning. Joey didn't try to strike deals or bargain; he just fought. Pegasus had assumed that months chained in a prison cell using a hole in the ground for a toilet would have forced Joey's hand.

"You don't have a bed in here, or a bathroom, or a shower. Do you know how long you've gone without showering?"

"I'm used to how I smell," Joey said. "It's got t'bother you more than me."

Very possibly true, because Joey did smell atrocious. The hole in the floor met up with the sewage system for the castle, and all of the dungeon had been permeated with the stench. If not for Joey's sake, Pegasus wanted him to cooperate so that he could move him upstairs and out of the smell.

The last time Pegasus had unlocked the chains on Joey's wrists and ankles, he had to produce his taser, always tucked away under his jacket. He had known when bringing Joey into this plan that he used to be in a gang, but not all gang members knew how to throw such violent punches. And because of that, Joey stayed in the same clothing and same location for several weeks.

"I'm trying to make this better for you."

"That ain't going t'happen. You might as well give it up, shithead. I'm unbreakable."

Under earlier circumstances, Pegasus wouldn't have believed the words, but two months in and no sign of wavering, Joey might have been right. And Pegasus couldn't bring himself to deprive him of anything else. After all, he was just a boy, twenty or not.

Pegasus felt guilty enough about the darkness.

"Why don't you just scram? It's not like I want t'see your ugly mug."

"You don't get lonely down here, Mr. Wheeler?"

"Not enough for your company."

Pegasus had to think that if that was truly the case, then Joey wouldn't speak to him at all during his visits. It was likely just the boy putting on airs, pretending he was unaffected by his predicament.

"I'll go. See you tonight then."

"Or you could just stay away!" Joey called back after him.

Pegasus grabbed the cart and took a deep breath. The worst of his visits were over. Or rather, as far as he knew. When he had checked on the Ring that morning, it was still locked away with the Puzzle, but by the time he made it to Ryou, it could have found its way back.

Téa would be a breath of fresh air, especially coming right after the dungeons, and Kaiba had been complacent in recent days. Hopefully Ryou would be his sweet self, and then there was Mokuba. If Pegasus had any luck, then he could get started at work with a smile.

He rode the elevator back up, even though he knew he would be coming back down in under ten minutes. He went back down the hall toward Yugi's room, but stopped outside of Téa's door just two down. Like he had done with Yugi, Pegasus knocked, but for Téa, he waited for an all-clear. A woman called for more respect than the riotous boys.

"I can't open it for you," she called, same as every day.

"Ah," Pegasus said, opening the door and stepping inside, "But how I would hate to interrupt you should you be indecent."

Téa was still in bed, but sitting up. Her eyes were puffy like Pegasus had just woken her, although the window let in a steady stream of morning sunshine.

"How are the others?" she asked.

Pegasus was used to the question. Téa rarely permitted Pegasus to discuss how she was faring, but wanted to focus the time on how everyone else was doing. Without having been around the Kaiba brothers when they were taken, she had managed to deduce their presence in the castle as well, and even asked after them, which Pegasus thought was noble of her.

"Doing the same as yesterday."

Téa was in the middle of his rounds, but she hadn't figured out who came before and after her. There were no limits to her guessing, but Pegasus humored them all anyway. She was more talkative than most of the others, and he had no intentions of stifling it.

"So Yugi is still upset? You should let me see him, you know."

"At this stage, I believe that letting any of you interact with each other would only make it harder. It would also open up opportunity for you to break a rule," he said, thinking of Kaiba giving directions to Bakura.

"You would rather risk Yugi being depressed for years?"

"He'll come around."

"Speaking of, how's Kaiba?"

Pegasus chuckled and put her plate on the table in the middle of her room. He took a seat and watched her crawl out from under her blanket and slide into the chair opposite him. She began to eat without hesitation.

"Kaiba-boy is stubborn. His idea of playing nice apparently consists of simply not insulting me too much. I suppose I should be grateful he has moved past the denial stage and is working through anger with relative calm."

"Have you shown him any more videos of Mokuba?"

"No videos, just a picture. Little Mokuba isn't a fan of it, you know."

"I would think he would understand that Kaiba wants to see him," she said, taking a bite out of the toast she had just buttered.

"Like you, he is all about the in-person meetings rather than video evidence. It is painfully tough to deny you two."

Pegasus wondered if Téa would have tried to escape had she known that a few of her friends were a couple doors down. Pegasus was almost convinced that he could leave her door unlocked and she wouldn't try anything because she couldn't leave them behind.

She would likely be the first to get out and into a nicer room. If Mokuba hadn't been such a treat to spend time with, Pegasus might have already let the boy move into the wing that he would one day share with his brother. But Pegasus was jealous of the notion alone, understanding of Kaiba's determination to get back to the ball of hope that was Mokuba Kaiba.

Pegasus asked about the books he had brought in for Téa, and mentioned the idea of getting her a television. It would have to be kept off while he visited, but he was certain that Téa would agree. And being so far offshore, his channels were limited, but Pegasus understood that something would be better than nothing.

Before he left, Téa asked again when she would be able to see anyone. She never specifically requested a person, but was likely willing to take what she could get. If anything, Pegasus might consider letting her visit with Duke. He knew that she was in the castle, and was less depressed than Yugi. He would benefit far more from seeing Téa than Yugi would. Pegasus knew Yugi-boy would only be further upset by the fact that his friends were living alongside him.

"You are going to let me out of here eventually, right?"

"Of course," Pegasus said. He had taken her old plate and made it to the door before she asked. "This space is not meant to be permanent."

She nodded and tucked a strand of hair behind her ears. After two months, it had lost the clean cut of the bob as the strands grew out. Pegasus had offered to bring her a hair clip, but she declined, insisting the length didn't bother her.

"I'm going along with you on this trust you insist upon, that you'll let us all see each other soon."

Pegasus lifted a finger before speaking, but then lowered it. The lighthearted tone he used to play down the severity of his statements wouldn't work on her, and it almost felt like deceit.

"I didn't say soon," Pegasus said. "I merely said that you would see them again. How long that will take doesn't just depend on you."

"I can't be the only person cooperating. You said that even Kaiba was playing nice."

"He's not gotten to your level. Don't fret. I'll make sure that the moment I feel you are ready, you'll get to see your friends."

Pegasus started to close the door to end the conversation, but thought of one final piece to add. "Besides, I'm not aiming for you all to play along."

He closed the door with that to let the sentiment linger. Giving the children something to ponder over was good, something to pass the time.

Pegasus grabbed the handles of his cart and steeled himself to head back downstairs. Wondering what mood Kaiba would be in was almost always a delight, particularly when the mood resulted in his sardonic quips. Out of all of Pegasus's guests, Kaiba was certainly the most entertaining.

Pegasus rode the elevator down again, stopping on the floor just above the dungeon. He took Kaiba's plate and left the cart by the elevator since he would be coming right back to it. Although, he was sure Kaiba could come up with some clever insults with just the sight of the cart. But it wasn't like Kaiba-boy needed any ammunition to come up with cutting remarks.

The hallway was dim, more so than usual. One of the bulbs had gone out, and Pegasus made himself a mental note to have it replaced. It was out of sight from Kaiba's room, so he could just send Croquet down without risk of being seen. Kaiba might have noticed that the hallway was darker. It wasn't like there was much else for him to take notice of.

Kaiba was in his usual morning spot, sitting on the floor in the doorway to the bathroom to catch the light. Pegasus had made sure that Kaiba had no control over the light in the bathroom, so it was always on, even if it was just at half-power. It seemed to be enough to read by, although Pegasus couldn't see Kaiba's face to know if he was actually reading the book in his lap.

Pegasus just stood outside Kaiba's room and watched him read for a few seconds. Even sitting on the floor in this room, Kaiba kept his back straight. It seemed impractical since only Pegasus would see a slouch, but it might have had to do with the pacing the camera monitors had been noticing. Kaiba kept his back straight because if he didn't, he might not be able to correct the posture later. He paced to keep what manner of health he could.

Pegasus clicked on the lights and gave the intercom button two pushes to keep it on. Kaiba's head turned, and Pegasus still had that faint moment of not recognizing Kaiba with his glasses. Maybe once Kaiba had proven himself trustworthy and had been moved upstairs, Pegasus would get him contacts.

"Good morning, Kaiba-boy."

Kaiba closed his book and set it at the foot of his bed, near to the bolt that secured the bed to the floor. He stood up and rolled his shoulders back to pop them, a slight wince covering his features when he did. Sitting on the floor for such a length of time must have taken its toll.

"What's it going to take for you to get me a radio?" Kaiba asked.

"A radio?"

A muscle in Kaiba's jaw twitched, but he said, "Yes. Just something that plays music or talk shows or whatever."

"Are you that lonely?"

Pegasus saw each emotion as it passed over Kaiba's face – anger, irritation, frustration, and finally, exhaustion. Kaiba hadn't been able to hide them as well as he used to, which was half of the point of putting him in this particular room. He wouldn't have broken in a room like Yugi, Téa, Duke, or Mokuba had been placed in, and he would have fought back too hard in Joey or Ryou's cells. He needed to feel helpless until it broke through the resistance. Pegasus could always build Kaiba back up into the perfect companion.

"It's too quiet," he said.

It wasn't like Pegasus had gone through any sort of precaution to soundproof the room, but the walls were three feet of concrete, as were the floors, and the ceiling was just a simple drywall. But there was nothing in the room to make sound, and nothing noisy in the hallway to float through the holes in the glass.

Pegasus wanted him helpless, not insane.

"There isn't an outlet in there."

"You can afford batteries."

Pegasus smirked before kneeling to unlock the hatch door. Kaiba's old plate was waiting to be cleared, but the wrapper from the protein bar was absent. Pegasus suspected that Kaiba was holding on to them, but after Pegasus missed a full day chasing down Bakura, he couldn't fault Kaiba for keeping some back. Calling Kaiba out on it would only prompt another argument.

"A radio is probably out of the question since we are so far from the nearest broadcasting station. And I don't think a signal could get down here."

"Then an iPod."

"I don't want you to have headphones."

The anger Kaiba had been trying to hide came out, and Pegasus waited to see if he would snap. That was their agreement, after all. So long as Kaiba kept quiet about his rage, he would get to stay up-to-date on his brother's well-being. If he broke, then it would be another week before Pegasus brought Kaiba an update.

"Then something with a fucking speaker," he said, running his tongue over his teeth after he spoke, like the words had gotten stuck in his teeth and needed to be cleaned away.

"Maybe if you cooperate tonight and play the favorites game with me, I'll consider it."

Kaiba leaned his head back to stare up at the ceiling, or maybe the top of the glass wall; Pegasus couldn't really tell. His lips pressed together and a hand reached up to scratch at a shoulder.

There was just so much fight in him waiting to get out. Pegasus almost felt sorry for Little Mokuba, so anxiously waiting for his brother to fall into line when it wouldn't happen in the near future. Kaiba just wasn't ready to let go.

He would be, Pegasus reminded himself. It wouldn't take more than a year, not with the quiet getting to him and his precious brother waiting for him upstairs. It had always been Pegasus's hope that once Kaiba made it through his adolescent years, he would calm down. And Kaiba was still just nineteen, the second youngest of the group.

"How's KaibaCorp?" Kaiba asked. The question was unexpected, and when Pegasus checked his watch, he found their time almost expired. But it was the first conversation Kaiba had started himself in a while, and Pegasus wanted to encourage that.

"Doing well. Obviously the transition had been tough, but we're pulling through."

"You didn't have to let anyone go?"

"Oh no. We would have without I2's backing, but I just funneled the needed funds over to get everyone through. You have built a good team."

"I'm well aware of my team's capabilities," Kaiba said. "And I know the five minutes are up."

Pegasus smiled. "I thought you might want to talk some more."

"I don't. I don't want to talk to you."

Kaiba took a heavy breath and adjusted his glasses. "But I would like to see Mokuba on his birthday."

There.

"I like the effort you've been making. It's very promising. Now if you'll just watch your language, I'll see what I can do."

The level of distrust in Kaiba's eyes hurt worse than the insults. It hadn't been long enough to unwrite the past. Kaiba had three years to think about Duelist Kingdom and let that hate build. It would take at least that long for Pegasus to prove that he had no intentions of hurting Kaiba or his brother. Pegasus doubted that Kaiba cared about the others.

"That's the best I'm going to get from you?" Kaiba said.

"It is for now."

Kaiba nodded. "Laundry tonight?"

"Yes indeed, Kaiba-boy."

And that was the end of the conversation. Kaiba knew Pegasus's schedule better than any of the others, and the few times Pegasus had deviated, Kaiba called him on it. So Pegasus locked the hatch and reminded himself to bring Kaiba down a change of clothes. It was probably time for the sheets to be switched out as well. And the bathroom towel. And his toiletries.

The good three plus Duke, as Pegasus liked to think of them, we much easier to take care of. Pegasus could walk through their rooms to see what they needed, and he had let them each have a couple of outfits so he didn't have to worry about their laundry as often. If Kaiba had his way, then he would have a new outfit daily, plus an extra few just for the sake of it, which was just too much for Pegasus to keep up with.

Pegasus clicked off the intercom when he headed back down the hallway, looking at the blown-out light again as a second reminder.

He took the elevator and the cart back down to the dungeon. Ryou's cell was in a different section than Joey's, that way, they couldn't hear each other. Ryou was never really loud, but the spirit didn't have any qualms about shouting, and Joey screamed half of his words.

And yet, somehow, it was Kaiba who Ryou ran across.

There wasn't a light in this half of the dungeon. Pegasus hated doing it to poor Ryou, but it was the spirit who had to be restrained, and that meant restraining Ryou. Pegasus understood how unfair it was to keep both of them trapped when just one was causing the trouble, but Pegasus couldn't see another way.

He left the cart and grabbed the flashlight he kept tucked away on it. He clicked it on and made his way down the steps that led him even deeper underground. This particular section of the dungeon had to be carved out for Ryou after all the other spaces had failed to hold the spirit.

Pegasus balanced a plate in one hand with a water bottle tucked under his arm and held the flashlight out in front of him like a blind man's walking stick. The stairway was steep and the air cold. Pegasus wished that the spirit would take his host's needs into consideration and stop trying to break out every few days.

"Good morning, Ryou."

Pegasus didn't shine the light directly on Ryou since his eyes were adjusted to the darkness. Instead, he left it on the floor, angled to hit the wall nearest to Ryou's head, which provided enough light to see, but only just.

"I need-" Ryou started, but his voice cracked and stopped. Pegasus understood anyway and set down the plate and water in order to get the key to Ryou's little cell.

It was really the worst of the bunch. It was no more than three feet high, giving Ryou just enough height to sit up, but it was also shallow enough that he couldn't stretch out his legs. Ryou's knees were pressed against the bars, bare and shivering. Pegasus had left Ryou with a blanket, but without the use of his arms, Ryou couldn't seem to keep it pulled up.

Pegasus got to his knees and opened the cell door. He stared at Ryou longer than he should have, white hair brown from the dust and dirt, and the straitjacket a similar color. Ryou's legs were covered in the same filth, if not more from the times Ryou couldn't wait on Pegasus before needing to use the hole in the dirt floor.

Pegasus helped move Ryou into the corner, where the hole was located. Ryou leaned his weight to help Pegasus move him, his face twisting up in pain from the effort.

"Tough night?" Pegasus asked, as if the answer wasn't the same as it had been every other day.

"He isn't here," Ryou said. "Couldn't you let me-"

"There's no guarantee he won't come out as soon as you're free."

Ryou shook his head, which really moved his hair more than anything. His roots were greasy and caked with dirt, and Ryou's face was streaked from past tears. "It doesn't work that way," he said, his voice breaking halfway through the sentence.

"I'm so sorry," Pegasus said. "If there was any way-"

Ryou's snort was more of a breath, but Pegasus caught the sentiment. "-I'd have done so by now," Ryou finished. "My arms, please. They hurt."

It had been at least a week since Pegasus had unlocked the straitjacket to give Ryou a few minutes of relief from it. Pegasus knew that Ryou's muscles had to be cramping from disuse, and that once he got out – because he _would_ get out; they all would – he would need to do some therapy techniques to make up for the deterioration he was going through.

"You promise me he's not in there?"

"I swear. Look, no Ring."

Ryou was finished in the corner, so Pegasus reached back for the roll of toilet paper he kept just outside the bars.

"Okay, I'm going to trust you now. Can I do that?"

Ryou nodded. "Yes, yes. I swear I'm not lying."

He sounded so earnest that it was impossible not to believe him. Pegasus checked to make sure that his taser was in easy reach before setting back down the toilet paper and undoing the latches on the straitjacket.

"It has to go back on before I leave," Pegasus said.

"I know. Thank you."

It just wasn't fair that Ryou had this spirit hell-bent on ruining his life. Out of all the children, Pegasus trusted Ryou the most, but had to keep him in the worst conditions because of that parasite. But maybe without the spirit, Ryou wouldn't have been as cooperative.

"I really am truly sorry about this," Pegasus said. He had gotten the main clasps undone, giving Ryou the ability to move his arms. And the movement came gradually, like a statue come to life. Ryou's arms hadn't moved in days, so working out the kinks would probably take longer than Pegasus had to give him.

"I'll let you out again at dinner," Pegasus said, deciding in that moment that he hated the pain on Ryou's face. "Maybe we can go for a short walk."

A few tears slipped from Ryou's eyes, but neither commented on it.

Pegasus couldn't see the face of his watch in the darkness, but he knew his time was falling short. He scheduled more than the usual five minutes for Ryou since Pegasus had to help him eat and use the bathroom, but even that was rarely enough.

Reaching back for the plate, Pegasus settled it in Ryou's lap. On a typical day, Pegasus would have to feed each bite to Ryou, but maybe the little movements would help to work out his sore muscles.

"Are you able?" Pegasus asked.

Ryou nodded, but the motion was feeble. "I think so."

The poor boy was so broken, which is not what Pegasus had wanted when bringing him along. It wasn't Ryou who he had an issue with, and Ryou shouldn't be punished for things out of his control, for a spirit out of control, for a spirit who ripped the Eye out of Pegasus's head.

"I hate to ask," Pegasus began, watching at Ryou lifted the fork to his mouth to take a small bite of the eggs Pegasus had scrambled, "-but have you remembered?"

Ryou's head shook. Pegasus knew how much Ryou wanted to recall where the Eye was hidden, but that pesky spirit hadn't disclosed the location. Pegasus had been certain that Ryou would remember something eventually if he just thought hard enough, but the spirit wouldn't want Ryou to remember.

It was, after all, his soul Pegasus was looking to seal away.

"It's okay, shh, don't fret. We'll find it eventually, and as soon as I do, I'll get you out of here. I promise."

Pegasus knew that Ryou wasn't weak-minded. None of his visitors were. But he couldn't fathom what it must have been like to have been in Ryou's situation. With a spirit invading his body to get him into trouble, and also forcing Pegasus to keep him in a small hole dozens of feet underground without even a light to see by. Pegasus had to keep Ryou's hands restrained because the spirit could pick any lock Pegasus tried on the cell door, and that meant that Ryou wasn't capable of taking care of himself.

It must have been so draining.

It made Pegasus think up to Kaiba, whose psyche Pegasus had wanted drained. The glass cage worked on Kaiba, but it was nothing Pegasus had wanted for Ryou.

Pegasus thought that Kaiba would have preferred to have been kept in an actual dungeon cell, because it would have justified his little delusions that Pegasus was trying to work something out of him. But he couldn't hold on to the delusion forever.

"Couldn't I just wear the straitjacket in a normal room?" Ryou asked. It wasn't the first time he had made a like request.

"I'm worried he would dislocate your shoulder trying to get out of it. He doesn't have much wiggle room in here."

"Maybe I could talk to him," Ryou said between bites. "Get him to agree to some truce or something."

Pegasus grabbed the water bottle and twisted open the top. "Here. Drink what you can. I'll find the Eye and take care of him for you. Until then-"

Pegasus couldn't finish. There were no words of encouragement or way to console Ryou. The situation was as dismal as Pegasus had ever seen, and there was nothing to be done to make it any better. And if Pegasus couldn't find the Eye, there was always the option of moving Ryou to Kaiba's room, as soon as Kaiba gave up his silly battle. That glass wall wasn't what Pegasus wanted for Ryou, but anything was better than _this._

"Couldn't you stay?" Ryou asked. The plate was empty and the water bottle half gone, and Pegasus had already stayed longer than he planned to.

It killed him to have to leave while Ryou was asking him to stay. It was what he wanted from all of his visitors, and now he had to walk away when Ryou clearly needed him. For what must have been the hundredth time, Pegasus cursed the spirit.

"I'll stay longer tonight. We'll get you cleaned up, and I'll have someone wash out this space. I promise, we'll have a good night tonight."

"Then leave the flashlight," Ryou asked. Pegasus had moved the plate and was reattaching the straps on the straitjacket. Ryou didn't resist. How was it fair that the one of them who didn't resist was the one who had to be treated the worst?

"Please don't leave me alone in the dark."

The darkness kept the spirit from being able to see any of the locks, making it harder for him to access them. But Ryou's eyes were so large and scared that Pegasus couldn't refuse.

"Okay. I'll leave it where it is."

"Thank you," Ryou said. The tears kept falling, having never stopped from before.

When Pegasus finished with the last lock, he scooted back out of the cell to lock that door as well.

"It's still so dark," Ryou said. He sounded like the crying had gotten under control. "Just a bit closer."

Such a simple request, Pegasus bent down to grab the flashlight without giving it much thought. It cast more light on Ryou's face, and Pegasus saw the change instantly.

" _You_ ," he whispered, stumbling a step back with the flashlight and kicking the plate he had left on the floor.

"How long do you intend to keep my landlord like this?" the spirit asked.

It was shocking, really, how different they sounded. The sweet nature Pegasus had just been lamenting locking away was gone, leaving only this vile creature in its wake.

"I'm keeping _you_ locked away. If you would just stay gone, poor Ryou wouldn't have to suffer."

"And Kaiba isn't suffering being locked in that prison? My landlord isn't safe with you."

"He has a name you know."

The shock of the sudden switch had faded, and Pegasus took the needed steps back forward to reach through the bars. The spirit jerked away from his touch, but as retrained as Pegasus kept him, he had nowhere to escape.

Pegasus found the Ring tucked between the straitjacket and the spirit's chest. He pulled it off and tossed it toward the staircase while keeping an eye on the spirit's angry face.

It faded back into Ryou's usual expression seconds later.

"I promise, he wasn't here when you came down. I wasn't lying! Please believe me, I was telling you the truth!"

Ryou's pleas were all too honest to be ignored. Pegasus believed him wholeheartedly, and when the tears followed, it only added to Pegasus's guilt. But he couldn't do anything.

"I believe you. Don't cry now. I believe you."

"You're going to take the light," Ryou said, gasping between his sobs.

"I am."

He hated how the spirit forced him to punish Ryou. If the spirit had just stayed hidden for another half-minute, then Pegasus would have been oblivious to the spirit's presence, and Ryou could have kept the light. But now that he had shown up again, Pegasus couldn't take the risk.

Ryou's sobs followed Pegasus down the hallway. Pegasus tried to tune them out as he picked up the plate and the water bottle, and finally, the cursed Ring. He had just wanted to do something nice for Ryou.

Pegasus almost collapsed on the cart. He had to remind himself why Ryou wasn't last on his list. Pegasus's suit was covered in dirt, mud, and waste, and the stench of the room felt like it oozed into him as deeply as his guilt.

So he went upstairs to the guest room nearest Mokuba's room. Pegasus kept a change of clothes inside and the shower stocked and ready for him. Taking the fastest shower that he could manage and changing quickly, Pegasus collected himself for his last, and favorite, stop of the morning.

The cart left outside the room with the Ring on top of the stack of dirty dishes, Pegasus unlocked Mokuba's door and stepped inside. Mokuba was asleep, and calling out his name failed to wake him.

Pegasus smiled and left Mokuba's breakfast on the table, careful not to topple the card tower Mokuba had built. He had to walk around the easel with a half-finished painting on it to make it to Mokuba's bed, giving his shoulder a shake.

"Good morning, Little Mokuba."

"'m thirteen," Mokuba said. "Not little."

"In the grand scheme of the universe, we are all little," Pegasus said.

That got Mokuba to roll over, if only so he could give Pegasus a tired glare.

"How's Seto?"

Pegasus smiled. "He agreed that he would like to see you on your birthday."

Mokuba sat up and ruffled his hair, which a night of sleep had turned into a larger mess than normal. Mokuba's movements were precise, and it only took a few seconds for him to send it back to its usual appearance.

"Does that mean you'll let us?"

"That depends entirely on you two. If I find you trustworthy in a few months, then I'll allow it."

"You know I hate you," Mokuba said. His eyes widened a touch and he quickly said, "I'm not trying to be mean. I'm just being honest, like you asked me to."

"I know."

Mokuba nodded, lips parted in that way that just radiated innocence. "It's April. Three months isn't very long for me to stop hating you, especially for Seto."

Raising a finger, Pegasus said, "Ah, but I didn't say you had to like me, just to prove yourselves trustworthy. There's quite a difference."

Mokuba squinted when he turned to the window. It was a bright morning, and he had the best view out of the ocean, which also meant that it reflected light back at him. Some of the light glinted off the bars that kept him from escaping like he had before.

"What's today?"

"Monday. Come now, surely you remember me being here for a long time yesterday."

Mokuba waved a dismissal hand. "Yeah, I'm waking up. I think I had a dream it was Tuesday and you brought me another book."

The mere idea that Mokuba was dreaming about Pegasus bringing things to him tickled Pegasus beyond belief. It didn't sound like Pegasus was the villain in that dream, and Mokuba hadn't called it a nightmare.

"Did you finish the last one?" It had been a guide to painting portraits.

"I think I want to try landscapes," Mokuba said. He was still looking out the window, but Pegasus could see his vision adjusting to the morning as Mokuba's squinting lessened.

"An abstract landscape?"

"Or an actual one. I'm not that bad."

"No, you have quite a bit of promise."

Pegasus loved Mokuba's inner artist. When Kaiba suggested the sketchbook, Pegasus hadn't known what to expect, but he certainly hadn't predicted the amount of conversation it would draw from Mokuba.

"Does Seto have a window?"

Pegasus tilted his head to catch Mokuba's gaze. The slight downturn of Mokuba's lips was a sign of his anxiety. He was about to ask for something.

"He doesn't."

Mokuba's frown deepened.

"What about light?"

"He has sufficient lighting."

Pegasus kept having to tell himself that Mokuba had stayed in a dungeon much like the one Joey was being kept in, and probably expected Kaiba to be held in one similar. It was very likely the mental image he had painted for himself.

"Would you let me paint a picture for him?"

Ah, and there was the hope that Mokuba so often tried to mask. He tried too hard to be like his big brother, but the childish innocence hadn't faded far enough for that to be entirely true.

"I think Kaiba-boy would love that."

Mokuba smiled, then caught himself. He ended up biting on his lip to hold it back, with one more question evident on his tongue.

"You'll give it to him?"

It was the "give it" part that Pegasus had trouble with. The canvases he brought in for Mokuba were too large to fit through that hatch, but Pegasus didn't mind hanging it on the wall just outside the glass.

"I'll make sure it is displayed where he can see it."

The change in phrasing didn't escape Mokuba's notice, but he didn't question it. He just nodded and let out a smile half as bright as the one he had hidden seconds before.

"Thanks."

"Now that we've settled that," Pegasus said. "What is this painting over here?"

With a point at the easel, Pegasus made Mokuba blush.

"It's embarrassing," he said.

Pegasus stepped back to look at the canvas, where Mokuba had covered the majority of it with various shades of blue. There didn't seem to be any reason for the placement, and Pegasus couldn't see any sort of shape coming out of it.

"Oh, I doubt that. I'm a curious bystander to your artistic abilities."

"It's water."

Pegasus couldn't keep himself from laughing, but he did keep it short.

"How is that embarrassing?"

Mokuba pursed his lips and slipped a little further under the blanket. "I was thirsty."

Pegasus laughed again and forced himself not to run forward and pull Mokuba into a hug. Kaiba brothers' attachment to each other made so much more sense now that Pegasus had gotten to know the boys. When he brought all his visitors to live with him, Pegasus had expect to favor Yugi the most, but somehow, the Kaiba brothers had managed to worm their way up to the top of his list.

"Was your sink not working?"

"By then I just wanted to see if I could do it."

Pegasus looked at the mix of blues and couldn't see anything resembling water. The shades were all wrong and there were no waves, droplets, or bubbles to indicate what Mokuba had been attempting.

"It looks like you're low on canvas," Pegasus said rather than comment on the painting.

"Yeah. I'll be fine for a couple days."

Checking his watch, Pegasus noted that he only had a few minutes remaining before his conference call. It would take just about that to walk over to his office.

"Mokuba-"

"Wait, I just, I have a question."

"You usually do," Pegasus said, making sure to give Mokuba an encouraging smile. Questions were good.

"It's just, I'm not fighting you. I've been doing everything you've asked me to do, haven't I?"

Pegasus nodded while collecting Mokuba's old dishes, including the mug that had held the hot chocolate from the night before. Mokuba had the last shift on Sundays, and although Sundays were Yugi's night for dinner, Pegasus always brought Mokuba a late-night snack.

"So when are you going to let me out of this room?"

"When I fully trust you."

"But, you just said I was doing everything right. It's not like I would try to run away or anything. You have Seto."

"But you would try to find him," Pegasus said. "And until I trust that you aren't going to, you have to stay in here."

Mokuba exhaled a breath that he had clearly been holding in. His front teeth grazed his lower lip as his eyes got bigger.

"I could talk to Seto for you. He wouldn't keep fighting if I could just-"

"He needs to come around on his own. He will resent you if you try to force his hand."

"And what if when I finally get to see Seto, he isn't Seto anymore?"

"It's not like I'm torturing him," Pegasus said, edging toward the door. "Your darling brother is perfectly fine, safe, healthy, if not emotionally blocked."

"The last time someone tried to change Seto, it worked. I didn't recognize him anymore. If it wasn't for Yugi-"

"Mokuba, I'm not aiming to change your brother. He just needs to be a little bit more accepting of me. _Fine_ , a lot more accepting. But I appreciate his snark and wit."

"You promise?"

Pegasus smiled, pleased that Mokuba wanted to trust in Pegasus's promises.

"I promise. I'll return a brazen and brash Seto Kaiba to you, if not a little bit friendlier."

Pegasus left Mokuba at that, making sure to lock him inside, since the cameras were still showing Mokuba testing the handle. It was another little thing, but it added onto Mokuba's short list of why he wasn't yet trustworthy.

The cart, dirty dishes, and Ring were left in the hallway for a servant to deal with, and Pegasus collapsed in his desk chair with a minute to spare. He used the time to send an email out, back to the mainland.

_Find my Eye._


	9. Chapter 9

"Good afternoon, Kaiba-boy."

"You look tired."

Pegasus dropped the laundry basket beside the chair and his shoulders heaved like a yoke had just been tossed away.

"You lot can be quite the exhausting bunch. Will you bring me your plate?"

Seto stood up and took a second to pop his back. There was no comfortable position in the room to sit. The floor was hard and cold and the bed was too soft to provide any support. Moving his pillow to the concrete hadn't helped, and there was only so long he could handle lying down.

He moved his plate from the side table to the hatch, taking the same three steps he did twice a day every day, and somehow ended up entirely spent from the little distance.

But as exhausted as Seto felt, Pegasus seemed even more so.

"Surely we've been a handful for months now," Seto said. He took the new plate Pegasus had handed over and moved it to his side table. "What's different about today?"

"Today has been a day of contemplation, Kaiba-boy. I'm sure you've had your share."

"Is Mokuba all right?" Seto asked. He didn't think Mokuba was Pegasus's concern, but he needed to rule it out first.

"Your brother is a precious gem in a dark cavern, a bright star in the vast wasteland of the universe, a-"

"So he's fine."

"Indeed."

Pegasus's voice was flat, and what little lilts and trills he tried to throw out were just half-hearted at best. But staring at him, Seto couldn't see any visible signs of exhaustion. His suit was pressed with a bright yellow pocket square folded to perfection, his hair smooth, and his shoes polished. Seto just knew somehow with a single glance that Pegasus wasn't feeling his saccharine self.

"Then what?"

"Careful now, you're beginning to sound like you care."

Sneering, Seto sat back down on the edge of his bed. "You're the evening news. Any information I get has to be filtered through you, unless Bakura manages to get out again."

And there it was. The eye contact they had been maintaining vanished for a flickering of a moment, not with a blink, but as Pegasus lowered his gaze to the floor. Since Pegasus wouldn't have cared about the evening news comment, it was Bakura.

"Anything you'd like to know about the others?" Pegasus asked, like he was testing Seto, trying to antagonize him into saying or asking something he shouldn't.

It was a tempting rope Seto wanted to tug on, but not with Mokuba's birthday on the line, not when Seto had agreed to play nice.

When Seto started to speak, Pegasus's lips parted, like he was waiting to shoot down whatever Seto asked. Whatever was troubling Pegasus was interesting, but Seto would have to work roundabout for the information.

"Have the others warmed up to you?"

For a moment, Pegasus's mouth closed and the eyebrow Seto could see furrowed. But the confusion was replaced with a smile, the menacing one that he had used when showing Seto that blank card before sealing his soul inside of it.

"It still hasn't been very long, you know," he said, clearly still waiting for Seto to ask about Bakura.

"You have an odd number of people," Seto said instead. "Do the troublemakers outnumber the cooperatives?"

Pegasus shrugged. "I'd say it's tied."

Scooting back on the bed so just his feet hung over the edge, Seto said, "Now I definitely don't trust you with KaibaCorp. Even CEOs have to be able to do some sort of math."

"Three cooperatives, three troublemakers, and one neutral."

"Are you saying you've neutralized me?"

It got the intended grin from Pegasus, much less threatening than the earlier smile. "Ah, Kaiba-boy. Are you telling me that you don't even consider yourself a troublemaker? Just a while ago you were surprised that there were people acting out worse than you."

"But I'm not really causing you trouble. Frustration, annoyance, I've heard I cause indigestion as well, but not trouble."

Pegasus took his seat and crossed his legs. "Those things can all be troublesome."

"Though not troublemaking."

They were quiet for a moment, which couldn't have lasted more than a few seconds. But Seto was sure that just as he was analyzing every word that had been spoken, Pegasus was doing the same. Seto had given himself plenty of lead-ins to ask about Bakura, but hadn't taken them. Pegasus had to be curious, and Seto planned to keep him that way.

"You agreed to play the favorites game with me," Pegasus said. He probably had been aiming for that grating sing-song voice, but globs of suspicion creeped through.

"I wouldn't say that I agreed so much as I didn't say no."

"I thought you wanted the music?"

"Wasn't I supposed to stop cursing for that?"

Pegasus frowned and lifted his chin. "Perhaps. Today's a bit of a jumble. Let's just say it's both. Stop the profanity and play the favorites game with me and I'll bring you something that makes noise."

"Knowing you it wouldn't be music, but a rattle."

"It will be music or a sound machine, you know, like the kinds that play thunderstorm sounds or waterfalls. Practicality will be the determining factor. Now, are you agreeing or not?"

"So I have to do two things to get one?"

"That's about the gist of it."

Seto gave an exaggerated exhale like he was really thinking it over, even though his mind had been made up since that morning. He would let Pegasus pick the game, but Seto would create the rules for it.

"Then I reserve the right to skip questions."

"We'll both get one skip," Pegasus said, which answered Seto's follow-up of whether he was supposed to ask questions back.

"And you are aware how childish this is," Seto said.

"That's the fun of it."

Seto couldn't remember the last time he did something which he considered fun, but playing a juvenile game with his kidnapper, also the man who twice kidnapped his brother didn't fit the description. But Seto needed information and Pegasus had provided an opportunity to ask, even if all of the questions Seto had needed to be phrased in a certain way.

"So get started," Seto said. He kept facing the wall opposite his bed, the one with the bookshelf. It kept him from looking at Pegasus, and his glasses didn't wrap around to give him anything other than a blurry flash of silver in place of the man in the hallway. Looking that way would have helped gauge Pegasus's reactions, but it would have also seemed too personal.

That was one of Seto's rules to the game. The façade had to remain impersonal.

"All right then. How about your favorite day of the year?"

"What kind of a question is that?" Seto said. Making up a favorite wouldn't be hard, but he couldn't just relent to the game without some sort of resistance.

"An actual one. Well?"

Picking the first day that came to mind, Seto said, "July seventh," and then he realized what it would lead to and added, "Don't start."

He closed his eyes and ignored the fact that he could feel Pegasus's amusement radiating through the glass. But at least his answer hadn't required an explanation. Although, if the game only called for answering questions about Seto's favorite things, then he wouldn't be obligated to answer any follow-ups.

"It's your turn."

"Favorite holiday," Seto said.

"Christmas of course. Although I do love the cheesy atmosphere of New Years."

They weren't playing twenty questions, but working with a time limit. Throwing out some pointless questions was necessary to getting Pegasus's guard down. It wouldn't go down completely – Seto doubted it ever would – but the lower Seto could get it, the more he would find out.

"What is your favorite hobby?"

That one actually did take Seto a few seconds to think of an answer. "It had been reading. Favorite television show that isn't animated?"

"Skip."

Seto had to look at Pegasus for that one. "Seriously? There wasn't anything to that question."

"I said skip, Kaiba-boy. You're the one who instigated the skipping mandate. Now, what is your favorite thing about your brother?"

"Mokuba."

"That's not an answer."

"There is no favorite part of Mokuba. If you don't like the answer, pick a less idiotic question."

For a few minutes, even though Seto knew they were pressed for time, he left just the speaker crackling as the only sound between them. It wasn't the best way to work Pegasus for information. There just wasn't enough time at only fifteen minutes a day.

"Okay, you win and I'll relent. What's your favorite season of the year?"

Seto had never put any thought into these questions, and seriously contemplated the nationwide IQ if this was the sort of thing people spent time considering. He had to live through all four seasons, so it didn't matter if he preferred one over the other.

"I don't have a favorite."

"Pick one or use your skip." Pegasus's tone implied the missing "Kaiba-boy."

"Winter then."

"Why's that?"

The blanket had bunched underneath Seto, so he took a second to adjust it before saying, "That's not a favorites question." But he caught himself pulling on the ends of his sleeves as he spoke and stopped immediately.

"I guess it is too much for me to just expect you to answer any semi-personal question about yourself without a justifiable cause, hm?"

There was enough time to consider his next question, and Seto knew that he needed to pick a lead-in subject that he could carry on to his follow-up question. Even if Pegasus got offended and stormed out, that would be as telling of an answer as anything else.

Of course Pegasus still had Seto's change of clothes on the other side of the glass.

"Of your prisoners-" Pegasus interrupted with a pointed clearing of his throat, and Seto obliged, "Of your guests, who is your favorite?"

"Probably your darling brother. Although Téa is a close runner up."

Seto hadn't expected such an upfront answer, especially when Pegasus had refused to give Seto a favorite television show. Maybe he expected Seto to find comfort in Mokuba's position in Pegasus's mental rankings. Pegasus might have considered being his favorite as an honor.

"Let's see, how about your favorite duel monster unrelated to your precious Blue-Eyes?"

"Swordstalker."

"Is that even in your deck?"

"Periodically. What is your favorite thing about having us here?"

That received a long pause, and for a minute, or maybe two, it really did take Pegasus a while to answer, Seto thought the question would be met with another "Skip," even though they had just agreed to one each.

But instead he received, "You are, Kaiba-boy."

Seto had to face Pegasus with that answer, but he wasn't sure if he was glaring in horror or confusion. "What does that even mean?" he asked.

"How did you put it? Oh yes, 'That's not a favorites question.'"

Dropping back to his spot facing the bookshelf, Seto closed his eyes once again. If Pegasus was being honest, it didn't change anything, and if he was lying, then there was no reason for Seto to get worked up over it. Seto thought about returning to the mundane questions that only provided trivial knowledge so that Pegasus couldn't turn Seto's questions back on him.

"What's your favorite memory?" Pegasus asked.

"Skip."

"You sure? It's hardly an incriminating question."

"I'm sure. What's your favorite plan for the future?" Seto asked.

"Well now you're just trying to find loopholes in the game."

Seto shrugged, but otherwise didn't move. "It fit in the guidelines."

"Getting R— oh never mind. I claim a second skip."

"This game is boring," Seto said. The questions were really too limited, which worked in Seto's favor, but not the other way around. He just didn't care about Pegasus's favorite flavor of ice cream or favorite time of day. Even if Pegasus did want them to get to know each other, this game wasn't the way to do it.

"I doubt you care about my favorite number or my favorite music," Seto said.

"Not particularly. But I assumed that you'd be more inclined to talk if the subject matter was trivial."

"Let's just play chess then."

"You only have four minutes left."

"Then wouldn't you agree this whole visit has just been a waste of time?"

Pegasus laughed. "Of course not, Kaiba-boy. Each of our visits is like a stepping stone on the path to enlightenment of character."

Seto rolled his head to the side and squeezed his eyes a little harder. "Why do you always sound like a fortune cookie?"

"The way you speak is so perfectly dull. Maybe you should try to spice up the lingo a bit? Use your language to its full abilities?" Pegasus paused. "And I don't mean the profanity sort."

"There's nothing wrong with the way I speak."

"No," Pegasus said, dragging out the syllable and sighing loudly enough for the speaker to catch it. "You speak perfectly well, but you know the thing about being perfect? Perfect is dull."

"Since my time is nearly up, I should go ahead and change," Seto said.

"Don't change Kaiba-boy-" Pegasus started, and Seto winced and waited for the inevitable to follow. "-I like you just the way you are."

-x-

The music player Pegasus ended up installing was mounted to the glass wall, on the side that Seto couldn't reach. There was a little suction cup holding it up by one of the holes in the glass, and Pegasus used it as part of the reward system he still insisted on using. It was much easier to play this challenge than the others, so Seto got to keep the music on – at a low volume, of course – almost every day and night.

"So long as you watch the profanity, I'll let you listen to it," Pegasus had said.

It just meant that Seto's insults had to derive from other means. And so long as he was passive about them, Pegasus let them slide.

Seto retreated to the bathroom almost every time Pegasus left to stare himself down in the mirror and remind himself that Pegasus wasn't actually succeeding in conditioning him. It took conscious effort to follow Pegasus's rules, and he only needed to until Mokuba's birthday. Then he could confirm that his brother was actually fine, assure Mokuba that it was okay not to fight back, and then return to fighting himself.

It was just a couple months of acting for twenty minutes a day. And anything was better than the silence.

"Good afternoon, Kaiba-boy."

Seto had been on his bed, reading one of the new books Pegasus had brought down, that thankfully, wasn't in a foreign language.

"Pegasus," Seto said, because Pegasus had asked to be greeted.

"We're doing something different tonight."

Seto set down the book and turned to Pegasus. Nothing looked any different, except Pegasus hadn't brought one of the room temperature meals, but something that had steam rising from the top.

And a cup of coffee.

"And what's that?"

"You are going to eat while I ask you some questions. You will answer them honestly. If you do that for me, I'll give you a present."

"I don't want anything from you."

"Notice I didn't say the present was from me."

"Is it?" Seto asked, far more curious than he had been before.

"It's not."

"Fine. Let's play your game."

Pegasus grinned and gave Seto his plate, along with the coffee which Seto picked up first. It had been a few days since his last cup, which was long enough that the headache had come back in full force.

"Begin," Pegasus said.

Seto didn't want to eat on the bed, especially since Pegasus had just washed his sheets a few days before and wouldn't do so again for at least another week, so he sat on the floor and leaned back against the foot of the bed.

Seto took a sip of coffee, but Pegasus didn't start asking questions, so Seto set down the mug to start eating. He picked a small bite of the rice beside the already-cut chicken and looked at Pegasus expectantly.

"Did your father abuse you?"

Seto almost choked from the shock, but got away with a slight clearing of his throat. He almost considered refusing to answer, but was fairly confident that whatever the present was at the end of the game, it was from Mokuba.

Gozaburo's personality wasn't a secret.

"Which one?"

"Either."

"Then yes," Seto said, taking a pause and another bite, "my father abused me."

He threw back the same vague answers that Pegasus always did, knowing that it was a Friday and that meant Pegasus only had fifteen minutes to question him. The longer each one took, or the more follow-ups Seto prompted, the less he would have to answer.

"Can I assume that means the late Mr. Kaiba?"

"You're welcome to assume what you'd like."

"Kaiba-boy, did Gozaburo Kaiba abuse you?"

Seto huffed and took another bite. "He did."

"How?"

It was a question that Seto wasn't sure how to answer. Knowing Pegasus's motives for asking might have helped determine the correct reply, but Pegasus could have been asking for any number of reasons. It could have been a casual interest, a psychological exam, a way to make Seto uncomfortable, an attempt at getting Seto to open up, or maybe Pegasus was crazy enough to want to reproduce it.

"What?" Seto asked. He couldn't think of anything better to ask.

"I know it's an odd question, but I'd like to know how your father hurt you."

"He just did."

"I'd like specifics."

"I'd like to know why the-" Seto paused and looked up at the music player, "-why it matters," he finished.

"You're getting angry. Why is that?"

"Because I don't want to talk about this. Pick a different subject."

"Alas, this is the subject I've chosen. You stopped eating."

Seto forced down another bite, harder this time with the weight of the conversation screwing with his head. Whatever Mokuba had to give to him couldn't have been worth it. But if Seto refused to answer the questions, Pegasus could just go back to Mokuba and inform him that his brother rejected whatever present he had tried to give. Pegasus wouldn't tell the entire story because he never did, and it would just hurt Mokuba.

"How about you tell me your reasoning for picking this subject, and I'll consider continuing this."

"You'd give up the present? That's a shame. Your brother worked so hard on it."

And in that last sentence alone, Pegasus had just forced Seto to cooperate with the questioning. It was the tone he used, the sickly-sweet apologetic one that he would likely use to tell Mokuba, "Sorry, Little Mokuba. Your brother just didn't want it enough. I guess a couple months of separation has made him value you less."

"He hit me," Seto said, flexing his fingers around the fork while he did. He tried to keep his voice even so it didn't sound like he was ashamed of that fact.

"And?"

"Does there have to be more?"

"No, but I'm sure there is."

"What makes you so sure of that?" Seto asked. He remembered the coffee and took another sip, followed by a quick second, anything to take up the time that had to be moving at a glacial speed.

"For abuse to change you so completely, it must have been more than a couple of hits here and there."

The realization was more annoying than the line of questions.

"What did Mokuba tell you?"

"Enough that I'm invested. And as you're avoiding the subject, it isn't looking like you want the present."

"You knew I wouldn't want to talk about this."

"You don't want to be in this room either, and yet, here you are."

"That is hardly a decent argument."

"If the next thing out of your mouth isn't the answer to my question, I'll take the present back up to Mokuba."

Seto took a sip from the coffee mug to stall for time. Mokuba didn't know anything that Gozaburo had done to Seto, so he didn't know what Pegasus had been told. At least, Seto had never told Mokuba anything, so it wasn't like Pegasus could confirm anything Seto told him.

"How didn't he?" was Seto's eventual response. It sounded more tragic than it actually was, and he hoped that Pegasus would accept it without prompting for further details. Pegasus seemed to want a blow-by-blow look at Seto's childhood.

"So he raped you?"

Seto exhaled heavily and shook his head. "No, I suppose that is one way he didn't."

Seto hated the relief that seemed to flash across Pegasus's face. He shouldn't have cared; it wasn't like Pegasus had a clean track record of not abusing Seto.

"Did he dangle you precariously from the edge of a building?"

"Does a third floor balcony count?"

And there was shock, likely sourced from Pegasus's attempt to gain another negative answer. Pegasus's horror from envisioning a thirteen-year-old Seto being held off a balcony amused Seto, almost to the point that he wouldn't have minded telling Pegasus more, just to watch his kidnapper regret bringing up the subject.

Almost.

Shaking it off with a long blink and a flick of his hair, Pegasus recollected himself in a moment so short, Seto nearly missed it.

"All right, Kaiba-boy, I doubt he ever set you on fire."

"Not all at once."

"You know I'm trying to come up with ridiculous theories. You can't really mean all that."

"I believe you told me to be honest in exchange for whatever it is Mokuba sent down. If you don't like my answers, stop asking."

"I refuse to believe that someone as tough as you, as resilient and strong as the amazing Seto Kaiba, was abused so terribly."

"I'm not asking you to believe it. In fact, I told you to change the subject."

Seto remembered his food and took another bite, although he was starting to get full. Eating so little over a course of two months had to have lowered his capacity for food. He switched back to the coffee.

"Do you have scars?"

"I'm not showing them to you."

"They would prove that you're telling the truth."

"You can take the present back," Seto said. He put down the plate but kept the coffee. He shouldn't have agreed to the game for any reason and it had gone too far. Mokuba would just have to understand that.

"It's not like I'm asking you to-"

"Pegasus. Just stop. I don't want to talk about this, and I sure as hell won't show you proof of my father having abused me."

Pegasus frowned before reaching over to the chair for the remote that controlled the music, clicking it off.

"I'm done. I don't care how much time is left. Go," Seto said, and his disgust made him set down the coffee as well. He knew that Pegasus couldn't see him if he went into the bathroom, and it wasn't like he could carry on the conversation if Seto left to the one place he could, but Seto refused to be the person to leave. He had compromised enough.

"I would have thought you had moved past your past. I imagine you being a the-past-doesn't-define-me type of fellow."

"Are you seriously criticizing me for being unwilling to discuss this?" And since the music was already off, "Whatever the hell you're trying to do with this is a fucking joke."

"Kaiba-boy, calm down."

"Why would you aggravate me to the point of anger only to ask me to calm down? It's low even for you."

"I was just trying-"

"I don't care what you were trying. I told you I wasn't comfortable discussing this, and you pushed for information anyway. I'm never going to trust you if you aren't going to respect-"

"Seto."

Seto didn't know if it was because they were discussing Gozaburo or if Pegasus had just lowered his voice to the exact tone, but the way Pegasus said Seto's name was exactly how Gozaburo always did.

"What?" he asked, in place of the "Yes, father?" he had always had to use when he heard that tone.

"I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?" Seto said, hoping that by repeating them, he would understand what had just happened. His heart was racing and his mind spinning and Seto couldn't figure out what the point of that game had been.

"I am. I think that this has been the most emotionally honest you have been with me, and I forced you into that. It wasn't my intention."

Emotionally honest. Seto caught on to what Pegasus meant by it. He had lost control of his emotions when faced with Gozaburo's memory, which was just another reason Seto could hate his late father. Pegasus had given Seto a little push, and Seto's calm façade crumbled.

"I don't care about your apology."

"I know you don't. But I owe it to you anyway. You asked me to stop and I should have. It's no way for a friend to treat another."

"We aren't friends."

"Not yet, Kaiba-boy. Not yet."

Seto knew that if he got started, he wouldn't be able to stop, and more of his emotional honesty might slip out. Since he had no intentions of bonding with Pegasus, Seto had to keep it all tucked away.

"I'll give you the present," Pegasus said. His tone hadn't returned to its usual exuberance, but Seto could see that he was working to it, forcing a smile and clasping his hands together. "You played along and you've earned it. Hold on."

Pegasus stepped out of sight. Seto took the moment to lower his head onto his knees and take a few calming breaths. He wanted to blame his reaction all on Pegasus, that he had pushed Seto into something and that was all it was. But Seto knew that the slight tremor in his hands arose from the memories Pegasus had been trying to resurface.

Gozaburo was dead, and the memories should have died with him.

The room was doing this to him. Thinking about Gozaburo had never triggered a physical reaction, at least, not since Seto had taken over KaibaCorp. He had even faced Gozaburo again in Battle City and won.

He had won, twice. That used to mean more when Seto had some sort of power.

Pegasus came back with a drill and a few screws sticking out of his mouth. He walked to the wall across from Seto and glanced back at Seto's room before deciding on a spot. He drilled out a hole around six feet up the wall.

Seto realized what the present was.

It took a few minutes before Pegasus had gone and returned, grabbing the canvas and hanging it on the screw he had just placed in the wall. Pegasus stood in front of it for a couple seconds, making slight adjustments to the positioning until it was straight.

Seto stood and walked up to the glass, getting as close to the painting as he could. Abstract, Pegasus had described Mokuba's style, and the painting certainly fit the description. It took Seto a moment to figure out what the painting was supposed to be, and it was ultimately the color placement that gave it away.

There was a light brown border around the edges, rough and messily done, forming an arch above the center. In the bottom of the arch was a collection of greens, each collection of shades creating a different shape. Higher than that was the dark blue, splashed with streaks and curls of white. Higher than that, up by the top, was a lighter blue with a collection of yellow dots in one corner.

"He found out that you didn't have a window," Pegasus said. "So this is the view from his."

"You'll give him my thanks?"

"Of course. Shall I make it sound like you cried when you saw the thought that went into it? That you wept passionate tears for your brother's thoughtfulness?"

"A simple thank you will suffice."

Mokuba wouldn't have expected anything else. Seto could see Mokuba's signature in the bottom corner, so there was no doubt who it came from, but Seto wouldn't relay any message of value through Pegasus, just like Mokuba had refused to send Seto any sort of message through the video.

But that one swirl in the ocean part did look remarkably like the letter K.

Seto didn't let himself search the rest of the painting, not with Pegasus standing so close and watching his reactions. So long as Pegasus left it there, Seto had all the time in the world to look for anything Mokuba might have painted in for him.

"You know I have to leave the music off," Pegasus said.

"You don't have to. It's well within your reach to turn it back on."

"It was our agreement, Kaiba-boy. Trust involves me following through on everything, not just the things you approve of."

"You will never trust me," Seto said. "I think you know me too well for that."

"And here I am thinking that I don't know you at all. But we'll work on it."

Pegasus checked his watch even though Seto could already tell that his time was up. It just meant a night in the silence, which he would probably spend reminding himself to watch his tongue in the morning when Pegasus returned. He could make it five minutes without using any words Pegasus considered profane.

"I'll give Mokuba your regards."

And with that, Pegasus was gone and the room was quiet again, leaving the room too dark for Seto to see the painting Mokuba had sent.


	10. Chapter 10

If Seto had counted correctly, which became more difficult to do as the length of his imprisonment increased, he was halfway through the month of May. The exact date escaped him, although if Seto tried to trace it back, the convention had been on a Sunday, the sixth of March. Seto knew the number of days he had been in the room, but counting them forward to get the current date seemed like it would be a lot of effort for pointless information. So long as he kept up with the day of the week and the number of days since Pegasus had brought new sheets, he could get by.

What was more important was that Mokuba's birthday was in two months. It was too long to wait to see Mokuba, to make sure that he was okay.

Seto rubbed his stomach, hurting at the thought of another two months, and not just two months without seeing Mokuba, but trapped in the room with Pegasus's lingering promise of spending two years in this room before getting out.

He didn't look up from the book in his lap when he heard the speaker come on, pretending to be engrossed in French syntax.

"Good afternoon, Kaiba-boy. I have another hypothetical for you."

The hatch door rang out as the metal lock tapped against the glass. Once it was opened though, Seto could smell the coffee. He looked up to verify it was there before dog-earing his page - which he never would have done in one of his own books - and putting down his book.

"Will it be as mind-numbingly simple as the last?"

Pegasus smiled and lifted the coffee mug, posing the same offer he had the previous time. Play the hypothetical and get the coffee.

"We're playing out this scenario with the same two companies as before, A and B. Now, Company A cut ties with Company B, if you recall, and it did help to level out the profits for a while."

"Of course."

"Just catching you up, little prince. Now, Company B has decided that Company A is getting all the income and starts manufacturing similar products to Company A."

With the tone Pegasus used, Seto might have assumed that Pegasus didn't realize that companies pulled that sort of move all the time. But Seto wanted the coffee more than he wanted to argue, so he kept from antagonizing the situation.

"Does Company B make better products or just similar ones?"

"Similar. And while their products aren't better, they are sold at a lower price. Some of Company A's fair-weather clients are leaving for Company B."

"Are Company A's price points fair for the product being sold?" Seto asked.

Pegasus confirmed that they were.

"Then I wouldn't do anything. Company A should stand behind their products without backing down. Lowering prices or offering unnecessary incentives would make it seem like the original, better product is worth less than it is."

After a small chuckle which was almost a giggle, Pegasus said, "Don't you think that's a bit arrogant?"

"Recall that I was known for my arrogance. People expected it from my company and wanted to see it from me. And I had no reason not to be. KaibaCorp made the best products on the market."

"Makes. It's still in operation, you know."

"But I'm not there. I'm sure the quality will slip."

"You had said you had a great team, and I can confirm that your team is wonderfully efficient."

"Every team, no matter how great, needs a great leader. I'm not there. And while my engineers and technicians can still build amazing products, everything went through me. Expect creativity and innovation to drop."

"You know," Pegasus started, bending down to slide the mug through the hatch since the hypothetical seemed to have ended. "If I wasn't so convinced you believed I brought you here to work for me or to steal your creations, I would allow you to continue working."

"I won't work for you regardless."

Pegasus stood after locking the hatch. Seto expected him to take his seat in the chair, but Pegasus remained standing. It was dinner time, so fifteen minutes in which Pegasus always sat. Sometimes he sat on the floor, like when they were playing chess, but he never just stood there. It made Seto feel like he needed to stand so they were on an even level.

"You said, not two weeks ago, that you wanted to work."

"But not for you."

"Then let me pose this question to you," Pegasus said. He rubbed his lips together and stared at Seto thoughtfully. Seto didn't much care for the scrutiny, so he looked away to find the coffee. He went to grab it while Pegasus asked his question, bending over and wincing at the pain in his side.

"Let's say by some act of God, you start trusting me and decide not to fight. No, no, Kaiba-boy, let me finish. I'm merely posing a what-if. So, you trust me and stay. What would you like to do with your life?"

"I'm not going to want that."

"Play nice."

Like he usually did, Seto took the coffee and left the food. He carried it back to lean against the narrow stretch of wall between his bed and the bookshelf. It put him directly across from Pegasus, but as far away from him as Seto could get while still carrying on a conversation. It might make it more difficult for the speaker to catch his words, which would make Pegasus work a little harder for the conversation.

"No. There aren't any scenarios that have me liking you enough to even think about staying here."

With a little "hm," Pegasus crossed his arms. "I won't let you out of this room until I hear the answer."

"You're not going to let me out of here anyway."

"I'm going to let you out, Kaiba-boy!" Pegasus's voice raised, but not in anger. It sounded like an odd mix of frustration and amusement, and Pegasus's arms uncrossed to stretch in a broad gesture. "You aren't staying in there forever."

"Just until you've conditioned me?" Seto said, taking a sip of his coffee to tone down his statement.

"I prefer acclimated."

"And if I chose not to allow you to acclimate me?"

"I won't give up on you, little prince. Until my dying breath, I would come down here and hope you've changed your mind."

Seto couldn't help but hope that dying breath would come fairly quickly. At least the people who had installed the air duct knew where Seto was, so if Pegasus died, Seto wouldn't be left to rot. Someone on the island had to be able to contact the mainland, to call in for backup to get them all out if something happened. It was something to hope for, Seto supposed.

A little chirp in Seto's mind pointed out that Pegasus did not mention Mokuba in Seto's need to get out of the room. It was unspoken – Pegasus had Mokuba and Seto wanted to see Mokuba – but he hadn't brought that up, which meant there was a chance that he was trying not to use Mokuba as leverage, as Seto had requested.

"So I get upgraded from this room to the wing with Mokuba. How long after that before you would let us wander your castle?"

Pegasus's nose wrinkled, but he erased the expression and flipped his hair over his shoulder. "Wander is an encompassing word. Let's use, have-access-to-parts."

"How long until we have access to parts of it?"

"However long it takes for us to redevelop our trust."

Seto frowned and leaned forward, just enough that his shoulders weren't touching the concrete, "Redevelop?"

"Oh, don't be like that. We are both well aware that from the moment I open this door, you'll be fecklessly digging around for any way out. When that stops and I trust that it won't start again, you'll-"

"Get a longer leash?"

"You said it."

"Okay," Seto said, taking a long drink of coffee. He was beginning to see where the conversation would end up, so he finished the rest of the coffee before asking, "What about Wheeler?" so that he could set the mug on his side table. He would need both hands free to make a clean escape.

"What about him?"

"He has a sister. What if he gains your trust impeccably, but still wants to see his sister?"

"Impeccably?"

Seto nodded.

"Then I would fly her out here, maybe send a boat to pick her up. Is there a term for that? Ship her over? Ferry her?"

Seto tilted his head to his left and smirked, then crossed his arms for greater effect. Even if Pegasus knew Seto's skepticism wasn't entirely sincere, at least the idea was there. "But certainly she would run home and alert the authorities of where he is."

"If I trust him impeccably, and he me, then he won't want to leave."

"And Muto? He has his grandfather, and I think a mother. I'm sure the others will want to see their families as well. Everyone has somebody."

Pegasus gave Seto a sad smile, and it took him several seconds to respond.

"All right, Kaiba-boy, what about you? Who do you have to go back to?"

Seto's gaze traced over the painting Mokuba had done for him. He knew that the shape in the ocean was a K, and it had taken him a while, but he found the rest of the letters. The sun was the O, the waves the K, the trees a triangle that was meant to be an A, and a small curl in the brown border the Y. Two birds up in the swirled sky blues formed the I and M.

"You have the unfortunate advantage of having my someone."

"But you still want to leave?"

"Of course. I don't like you, and that's me putting it nicely. I don't like the Friendship Brigade and you have them as well. I have no intentions of living out my life with just the eight of us trying to coexist."

"Who ever said that you would see the others?"

Seto took a beat before saying something ill-thought out.

"If I have access to parts of your castle, I would assume the same for them."

"Well, you know what they say about people who assume."

"Pegasus."

"Without giving too much of my master plan away, you may not be spending the rest of your life with them."

"I thought the last chapters haven't been written."

"They are becoming clearer."

"If I ask you specifically, will you answer?" Seto asked, knowing that they had maybe thirty seconds left before Seto would end the conversation and leave his bedroom to wait out Pegasus in the bathroom.

Pegasus actually seemed to consider it. He checked his watch and stared at it for longer than it normally took him.

"Not about the master plan, no. I'm sorry, Kaiba-boy. It's privileged information."

"So you're not an open book. Doesn't that mean you've lied to me?"

The discomfort Pegasus was showing made Seto feel more in control than he had in quite some time, as he had been working the conversation to that point for the past several exchanges. Pegasus talked too much not to get caught up in something he said wrong, and Seto intended to call him out when he saw it. Because really, the only advantage Seto had was that Pegasus wanted Seto to believe him unwaveringly, and Seto didn't. If that ever changed, then Seto had nothing.

"I'll explain it to you later on."

"Later on could mean anything and quite honestly, I'm beginning to doubt you have any intentions of following through on your long-term promises."

"You should believe that I'm good for the information. Trust-"

"Forget trust," Seto said. He allowed his tone to raise because he was trying to prove a point, and speaking at a normal register would detract from the feigned drama he was trying to express. "I'm locked in this room. What am I supposed to do with any information you give me?"

"You're getting out of the room."

Seto wanted to swear, knowing it would convey the false extent of this argument, but wasn't willing for the music to get shut off just so he could prove a point. He could get there without the needless theatrics.

"Says you, the man who kidnapped me and locked me in this cage. You've given me a thousand reasons not to believe you."

"Why would I let you know that your brother is here if not to give you something more to look forward to?"

"Because you're insane?"

"Eccentric."

"You're trying to mess with my head? You're holding Mokuba as leverage over me? You like watching me struggle with that knowledge? You just think it's funny?"

Pegasus's face burned red, so Seto kept pushing. He walked to the glass, slowly, like he held all the authority in the situation.

"You are giving me every reason to fight and then demanding that I stop. If that isn't trying to play mind games, I don't know what is. This cage is a clear indication that you put thought into where you wanted me, and this is what you settled on. If you were going to let me out, you would have done so. So stop lying to me and just tell me the fu- truth."

Letting one almost creep out seemed to slate the severity for Pegasus. It got a flinch out of him, and even resulted in him taking half a step back. If Seto could have walked any closer to Pegasus, he would have, but matching Pegasus's strides just wasn't possible, so Seto settled for straightening his back even more and lifting his chin.

The sharp pain in his stomach protested at the motion, but Seto ignored it so he wouldn't flinch.

"I'm not lying to you, Seto," he said in a sad attempt to make Seto comfortable.

"You aren't telling the truth either. And if you're just going to tell me lies, I won't talk to you."

"Look here-"

"Just get out. Don't come back until you've decided that you actually want to follow through with this honesty nonsense."

Seto didn't give him a chance to respond before walking into his bathroom and jerking the sliding door closed. The fifteen minutes weren't over, but Pegasus wouldn't linger once the time was up. He had other prisoners to bother with his presence.

Resting back against the door, Seto waited to hear the intercom turn off. He doubted that meant Pegasus was gone – he could easily see Pegasus trying to trick Seto into coming out – but it had to go off before Seto would consider leaving. After storming out with such flair, it would be foolish to walk back in before Pegasus had gone. He could loiter in the bathroom for a while, maybe take a shower.

He smirked. That had gone about as well as he hoped.


	11. Chapter 11

The sharp pain woke Seto at some point in the night. It centered on the right side of Seto's stomach, aching and pulsing, worse than a cramp. He pressed his fingers against the spot but jerked them back as the pain expanded.

Seto forced himself to roll out of bed, wincing as he tried to stand, but couldn't get his back completely straight without pulling on the troubled area. He shuffled into the bathroom using the light as a guide because he didn't think to grab his glasses before getting up. He thought that the pain might have just been from something Pegasus brought him, but after at least a half an hour, the pain got worse. Seto curled up on the floor near to the toilet and tried to ride out the pain, more severe than anything he had felt since the Gozaburo days. His body shook, but it could have been from the pain or the cold from lying on the floor.

He wrapped his head in his arms and tried to focus on his breathing so that he could think. Since he had been in the room for months, Seto had almost moved past the idea that Pegasus would drug him, but that had been thrown out the metaphorical window. Whatever Pegasus had done to his food, Seto couldn't believe that he let his guard down so much that he didn't even question it anymore.

The pain didn't stop with time. Instead, it grew, branching out toward his right hip and becoming more sensitive. Seto had given up the notion that the pain was going to make him sick, so he tried to get up to get back to the bed, but the moment his head lifted from the floor, a wave of nausea hit him and the pain nearly split his side in half. He understood that it wasn't possible for pain to rip him open, but it certainly felt plausible at that moment.

He dropped his head back to the floor and waited it out. Not the pain, which he was convinced wouldn't go away, but the nausea. He wanted to get back to his bed–no, not his bed, the bed Pegasus had put in the cage for him–and writhe in pain there. It had to be better than lying on a concrete floor.

It took him a while, how long he couldn't even estimate, but Seto eventually stumbled back into his room and collapsed onto the bed. He curled into the position he would get in when he just couldn't take any more hits from the riding crop but knew they were coming anyway. His hands covered his mouth just in case any pained cry tried to sneak its way out.

The pain wouldn't end, but it kept expanding and getting worse until Seto realized that it couldn't have been anything in the food. He should have thrown up after so long in pain, but nothing had come of the nausea. And unfortunately, the pain was centered on a particular spot. For it to have been this bad, he must have been ignoring it for too long.

Although it was dark and Seto didn't want to, he moved a hand from his face and waved it as widely as his appendix would allow. He hoped that Pegasus would take him seriously, since Seto understood how much of a trick it must have looked like to get him out of the room. He liked to think that he wouldn't resort to such a tactic just to get the door open, but at this point, logical thought escaped him. If Pegasus didn't believe him and his appendix was actually about to rupture, then Seto would die in this room.

If someone was watching, Seto hoped they would make good time getting Pegasus or getting the hell down to the display case.

The intercom turned on sometime later, followed by, “Something wrong, Kaiba-boy?"

“I think my—” Seto's voice broke as a rush of heat broke out from the spot, releasing another round of pain. He reminded himself that it couldn't have ruptured so soon. It took hours or even days for it to rupture. And the pain would dull once it started to rupture, so at least he had that to look forward to.

“Kaiba-boy?”

“You want my trust?” Seto asked, thinking better than to start off with what was happening.

“Of course, I do.”

“My appendix is going to rupture.”

The lights came up and Seto winced at the sudden transition. He could only see vague blurs, but it didn't matter. He just needed to convince Pegasus that this was real, because he couldn't leave Mokuba here alone.

“What?”

“Pegasus, just—” Seto stopped because he couldn't get words out for a moment. “—do something about it.”

Seto couldn't see Pegasus, but he knew that the door wasn't being lifted, so Pegasus hadn't bought what was happening.

“Should I believe you?”

“That or I die.”

Seto could hear the pain coming through his own voice, tremoring as badly as his hands. It might have seemed like bad acting, and if Seto had the capability of stopping it, he would have. His body was betraying him, making him weak, and threatening the lies he had been forming around Pegasus that would lead to getting him out. Pegasus had started to question himself, and now he was questioning Seto which had never been the intention.

“You know you can't prove that.”

“You'll just have to trust me.”

Trust had been a part of Pegasus's game since the beginning. Even if Seto didn't understand why Pegasus wanted it, it could be used against him. Or, Seto hoped that it could. He wished there was a way to tell Pegasus that he honestly had no intentions of trying to escape if the door was opened at this point. The thought of dying while in this particular room, with Mokuba locked away somewhere in the far reaches of the castle was too much for Seto to handle in his current state.

Silence followed, and Seto couldn't move to see if Pegasus was still standing there or not. As much as he hated it, Seto did trust that Pegasus wouldn't just leave him, in–as Pegasus would likely view it–the off-chance that Seto was telling the truth. Seto hated trusting Pegasus for anything, but in this regard, he supposed it was good.

It was a while before he heard anything from the other side of the glass wall. The length of time was indeterminable, but equivalent to the time it took for Seto to second guess himself and believe Pegasus had just left him alone to suffer through the pain. But when he heard Pegasus's return, relief flooded through him. He heard clattering and understood without needing to see that it was a ladder. The duct had to come down for the door to be opened. There was a ladder. Pegasus was going to get him out.

“All right, Kaiba-boy, I'm going to assume you are telling me the truth. Bear in mind that I have four other men out here and they are all armed. At this current stage in our relationship, trust only goes so far.”

Seto nodded and felt it in the nerves throughout his body. He had never imagined that appendicitis would hurt so badly, and Seto had been through enough pain in his life that he thought he could withstand just about anything.

He had been wrong.

It took several minutes of tinkering to get the duct down, and when the wall began to rise, Seto couldn't even appreciate the moment because _why did it have to take so long_?

Pegasus approached the bed and sat on the edge of it, reaching a hand out to feel the side of Seto's face. Seto leaned away from the touch too late.

“You're burning up, Kaiba-boy. I guess you are telling the truth.”

Seto thought he remembered something about the appendix and low-grade fevers, but he didn't have the time to question it.

Pegasus reached down and lightly touched Seto's side, and even that amount of pressure drew a deep, wounded groan from Seto that there was no holding back. Pegasus had to know that if Seto was faking, he wouldn't let out such an embarrassing sound.

“My, my. Let's get you upstairs. Can you walk?”

Getting upstairs any other way would be unacceptable. Seto nodded and pushed himself to a sitting position, taking a second to adjust, squeezing his eyes closed, and waiting out the new shocks of pain. Pegasus kept a hand on Seto's arm that he didn't have the strength to push away.

A hand on his elbow helped get Seto up to his feet. Seto buckled over, only supported by Pegasus. Seto knew he had to make it upstairs, but just the single step had knocked out his breath.

“Come help me with him,” Pegasus said. “Just support his other side.”

Pegasus adjusted Seto's arm around his shoulders and placed a hand on the left side of Seto's waist. The other man Pegasus called over lifted Seto's left arm to give him support on the other side, but gratefully didn't touch Seto's stomach. He just kept his hand on Seto's back, like he was waiting for Seto to topple over.

“My glasses,” Seto said as Pegasus began to step away.

“This is easier than blindfolding you.”

For the first time in his life, Seto cursed the late nights in front of his computer and the hours spent staring at textbooks. His eyes hadn't always been so bad, but years of study and work had ruined them. He could see about a foot in front of his face before everything blurred.

Seto closed his eyes and let the men lead him.

Moving amplified the pain, but was the only way to get Seto any help. It was a horrible catch-22 that Seto couldn't even appreciate the irony of. He had gotten out of the room and couldn't do a single thing about it. He couldn't even walk without people holding him up.

“Living on an island,” Pegasus said, sidestepping so one of the men he had brought down with him could walk ahead, “Particularly one so far off shore, can be very dangerous. If you recall, I mentioned keeping a doctor on staff for the past few years. I'm sorry that you'll have to be treated here, but I promise, she's very good.”

Seto wanted to argue that Pegasus was insane and any doctor who hadn't practiced for years couldn't be worth keeping around, but the majority of him was relieved that he wouldn't have to wait an hour to be flown back to the mainland for treatment, or worse, that Pegasus wouldn't try to do the procedure himself.

They went down the hallway in the direction Seto had pointed Bakura. It took twenty steps to get to the end, and then they stopped in front of an elevator. Someone pressed the call button to open the doors, and Pegasus took a slow step inside.

The momentum as the elevator moved up rocked Seto ever so slightly. It hurt, but just breathing hurt.

“You don't have to walk. I could probably carry you there,” Pegasus said.

Seto forced out a “No.”

“So stubborn,” Pegasus said. “No worries though, little prince. It's not far.”

Several painful minutes later, they were out of the elevator and moving down another hallway. Seto kept his eyes closed for that stretch of hall, because the blurriness added to his nausea. Having someone on either side of him, both walking at a slightly different pace, already made it worse.

Seto ended up deposited in a bed in a room somewhere not encased in glass. Or it might have been. The only detail Seto could make out was white, and maybe the dim outline of a television and a table, and Pegasus leaning over him.

“Doctor Torra, here, this is Seto. His appendix seems to be insisting on coming out.”

The one detail that Seto was entirely aware of was that the room he was in could not have been an operating room. There was a slight prick on his arm, hardly noticeable over the raging fire that had enveloped him, and the white Seto had been able to see faded to black.

When he woke up, his glasses were on. He got a better view of the room, white wall, television mounted up by the ceiling, and most importantly, the restraints on his wrists and from what he could tell, his ankles.

His body was blissfully numb compared to what it had been before, and he found an IV running out of the back of one of his restrained hands.

“Good morning, Kaiba-boy.”

Seto didn't feel comfortable talking to Pegasus while there was so much morphine running through his system. He didn't know what he would end up saying, and had a terrible feeling that he would end up regretting whatever came out.

“Torra said that you're all good now. She expects it will be a few weeks before you recover fully, but at least you'll be out of that room for the duration.”

Although Seto didn't think he was lucid enough to talk, he wanted to make sure that he heard Pegasus correctly. He couldn't remember what room Pegasus referred to, just something about a fishbowl.

“What?”

Pegasus sat on a chair beside the bed with an expression ready to reach out and grab Seto's hand in comfort. Seto couldn't pull his hand away with the restraint on his wrist, but Pegasus kept his distance.

“You'll have to stay up here until you are completely healed. It's not like you can be treated back in your room, Kaiba-boy.”

Seto kept his mouth shut. That meant he had to wear the restraints. Seto doubted that he could talk his way out of those, even once his head was less muddled. But he might be able to get them off himself given the chance and substantially less drugs in his system.

“I suppose you should go back to sleep. You seem particularly drained.”

It sounded like good advice, but Seto didn't think that Pegasus gave good advice. Maybe it was just the morphine and after-surgery haze messing with his head, but Seto thought that if Pegasus had said it, it must have been wrong.

He nodded rather than verbalize his thoughts, which had sounded very close to “You go to sleep,” and left a bitter aftertaste on his mind. Seto didn't know if minds could have an aftertaste, but he definitely felt it.

“I could turn on the television. I don't get many channels out here, but something has got to be better than nothing. Wouldn't you agree?”

He wanted Seto to talk. Seto had no idea why, because he was certain they didn't get along or even tolerate each other under most circumstances. There was a reason for it, but that reason wasn't cooperating with Seto's memory. A faint recollection of hate was all Seto had to work with, and that was enough for him.

“Or I suppose the television could just wait until after you've napped?”

Had his voice always been so grating?

Seto felt a line of pain in his back, along with a sharp pressure around his collarbone, and wasn't sure if it was from his position or from the surgery. He gave the restraints on his arms a dull tug, but couldn't adjust his position at all. But trying to move hurt more.

“Is the medication wearing off? You seem uncomfortable.”

“You're sitting fairly close,” Seto said before realizing that he had spoken. Maybe he should go to sleep, because at least that way he wouldn't start talking without being able to think through his words in advance.

Pegasus laughed and didn't move any farther away from the bed. “I'll send Torra in to give you your fix in just a bit. We are still in your time slot you know.”

His time slot. That was it. Pegasus had kidnapped him. Seto thought he remembered something about a window, but more importantly than that, he remembered Mokuba.

“Where's Mokuba?” he asked. If Pegasus had told him before, Seto couldn't recall.

“In the same place he has been this entire time, Kaiba-boy.”

That hadn't been what Seto wanted to ask. He had intended to, well, he couldn't remember what the intent of the question had been, but it wasn't just to gather Mokuba's location. He needed something else, but just couldn't focus enough to figure out what it was.

“All right, Kaiba-boy. You win. I'll call in the doctor and have her drug you up to the point that you will be worthless to chat with for a while. But for all your paranoia about me drugging your food, I would have thought you would protest a touch more.”

Strapped to the bed, it wasn't like he could do much to fight back, drugged or not. And since Seto was beginning to feel pain, he had to assume that the previous round of drugs was wearing off. After having his body cut into and a part removed, he wanted to be drugged.

“Morphine,” Seto said.

“I'll be back tonight then. Sleep well, little prince.”

Seto made a mental note to remind himself to tell Pegasus to stop calling him that, but knew even then that it would be lost by the time he woke up.


	12. Chapter 12

“Good afternoon, Kaiba-boy. Are you feeling any better?”

Seto opened his eyes to squiggled lines and bright flashes. There was no pain, but his body floated in space and his mind was out there somewhere. Pegasus blurred even though Seto could see the frames of his glasses. A large, cartoon Blue-Eyes hovered above Pegasus's head, the only thing clear in the room.

“Hello? Kaiba-boy? Is anyone home inside that brilliant mind of yours?”

The toon Blue-Eyes had Seto's attention because he wasn't sure if he was actually awake or not. Dreams blurred, so he could have still been under, although his dreams weren't usually lucid. And they certainly never involved cartoons that he hated.

“Well, isn't this just pathetic?”

Seto's attention snapped over to the far corner of the room where the voice came from. Just as clear as the toon Blue-Eyes and more realistic than anything else in Seto's life, Gozaburo lit a cigar.

“You're so weak, Seto.”

The restraints held fast as Seto tugged at them. A layer of padding inside the cuff kept Seto from slipping his wrists through and getting away from Gozaburo, who walked to the side of Seto's bed and blew a long stream of smoke in Seto's face.

“Is everything all right? Is the medication wearing off? From what Torra said—”

Seto shook his head and leaned away from Gozaburo. Small tugging sensations distracted Seto for half a second, but Gozaburo followed as Seto leaned, and Seto smelled the burning of ash. Unless there was a fire while Seto was asleep, he shouldn't have been able to smell anything.

“You trust him? That man has kidnapped you twice now. He has that brother you're always on about. And here you are, pet, trapped and helpless.”

“Stop,” Seto said, still yanking and using what little strength he had to try to break out of the restraints. Gozaburo and Pegasus both leered down at him, one's expression less vindictive as the other. “Get the hell away from me.”

Gozaburo chuckled and lifted the cigar to his lips again. He smirked around it, looking over to Pegasus in such a way that forced Seto to do the same.

“He enjoys seeing you like this. How much more do you think he will enjoy seeing you crumble once he reveals that your brother has been dead this entire time?”

“No, no,” Seto said, fighting harder against the cuffs. “You're lying.”

“Kaiba? Are you okay? What's wrong?”

“The morphine, turn it off.”

Pegasus sat in a chair beside the bed and it turned into a train when Seto looked at it. The legs of the chair were wheels that turned out of sync from each other, and the toon Blue-Eyes pulled a conductor's hat out from behind Pegasus and put it sideways. Its eyes bugged out the longer Seto stared at it.

“You just got out of surgery last night. It'll be too much—”

“I'm hallucinating,” Seto said. The toon Blue-Eyes flew over him and growled in his face, but blocked out the sight of Gozaburo. There was no way Pegasus installed the projectors in his little medical room. Even for Pegasus, that would be too insane.

“No, Kaiba-boy. I'm here and you're—”

“—Refusing to face the facts,” Gozaburo said.

“—Pretty sure Gozaburo is dead.”

Pegasus barely waited a second.

“I'll get Torra.”

The toon Blue-Eyes left with Pegasus, leaving Seto alone with Gozaburo who, seated at the edge of Seto's bed, reigned over Seto like he had never died.

“You know I'm right,” he said. “How many times does he have to lie to you and hurt you before you wise up and listen to me? You can't trust anyone. If any of my lessons stuck, it should have been that one.”

Seto closed his eyes and stopped moving. Gozaburo was a hallucination and dead. This wouldn't beat him, not now, not after everything. But his mind was telling him that he smelled the smoke and felt the mattress dipping underneath Gozaburo's weight. Hallucinations shouldn't have weight.

“—shouldn't last long after I turn it down.”

“Not down, off,” Seto said.

The woman was a stranger, so she was either also fake or she was Torra. Seto couldn't tell what she looked like because her face merged into the toon Blue-Eyes and started laughing. Its cackle sent Seto back to Duelist Kingdom, and he would have edged away from it if that didn't put him closer to Gozaburo.

Mokuba. No, not Mokuba. His eyes are blank and why is he chained to that guard? Mokuba, look at me. Just look at me or blink. I'm so sorry. Forgive me, Mokuba.

“She's taking you off now. Okay? It's going to hurt, you know.”

“Just get it out of me,” Seto said.

“You aren't going to ask? Do you like living in this delusion that your brother is still living?”

Seto couldn't tell if the effects of the morphine were starting to wear off or if Gozaburo was just blurring as a part of the hallucination. His fingers reached down for Seto's neck, tracing the outline of the collar that hadn't been there in such a long time. Seto couldn't lift his chin out of the touch, and the best he could do was turn his face away.

“Ask him, Seto. Let him lie to you again.”

“You're fine, Kaiba-boy. It's just us in—”

“Mokuba.”

“What about him?” Pegasus asked.

“See? He's deflecting. Your brother is dead.”

Seto shook his head as best as he could while lying flat against the pillow. The fingers were still on his neck, but the sensation faded.

“You killed him,” Seto said. He met Pegasus's gaze and ignored the toon Blue-Eyes waving a goodbye at him. Its face turned into a woman's face, barely visible at the edge of Seto's vision.

“Torra, give us the room.”

The pressure on Seto's neck was gone, so he risked a glance over to where Gozaburo had been sitting. He was gone, and just the smell of the smoke remained. There was no pain yet.

“Where is he? Where's Mokuba?”

“Like I told you,” Pegasus said, taking the chair that was no longer a train. “He's where he has been this whole time.”

“You're not answering. You killed him.”

He picked up his struggles to get out of the cuffs. It was probably futile, and he could see that there were IVs hooked to him that would have to be ripped out before he could get up, but it had to be done. He needed Mokuba.

“I haven't hurt your brother. Calm down. You're going to rip your stitches.”

Calm down, he couldn't calm down. Mokuba needed him and might have been dead. Pegasus lied, it was just how he worked, so Seto couldn't trust him. Pegasus already hurt Mokuba once. He was just a kid who didn't deserve this. I'm so sorry, Mokuba.

“You're a liar. I don't believe a fucking thing you say, so just stop lying to me.”

“This is the drugs talking. She must have giving you too much or you just don't react well to them. It's okay. Once they wear off—”

“I don't want to talk to you!”

Raising his voice resulted in a stretching sensation through his abdomen, not quite to the level of pain, but it probably would be without the medication in his system. Raising his voice to Pegasus had never gotten him answers before.

“He's fine, alive and well and probably awaiting my arrival. You're just having a bad reaction to the medication.”

“No, it's why you won't let me see him. You've killed him. This whole time he's just been dead and you've lied to me about it.”

Pegasus sighed and reached out, but Seto turned his head toward the window. He couldn't see anything but blue through it, but it was better than watching Pegasus lie to him again. Mokuba could be dead, and there was no way to prove it otherwise. The pictures and videos could be old.

“Okay. You're still very high right now. It will take—”

“Don't talk to me. Just go.”

Surprisingly, Pegasus did, closing the door behind him.

Seto kept gazing at the window like something was going to move by it. The blue was better than the view out Seto's last window, and the sky brought back memories of the painting Mokuba had made. He left that message saying he was okay. But Pegasus was an artist. He could forge signatures, probably.

Seto didn't know why he was taking Gozaburo's word, but it seemed more trustworthy than Pegasus's. Gozaburo had let Seto see Mokuba at dinner and for short times during the weekends. He let Seto take care of Mokuba when no one else would and now Seto failed.

He hated being this emotional and willed his body to purge the morphine more quickly. He would take pain over a cloudy head any time. Something was wrong with his head, and Seto kept forgetting why he was angry with Pegasus to begin with, but it had to do with Mokuba. Everything did.

The door opened and Seto kept his head away. Whether it was Pegasus or Torra, Seto didn't want to talk anymore. He thought that he had been justified in his argument with Pegasus and that he would remember why when the drugs were gone.

“This is a one-time thing,” Pegasus said. “Don't think you can pull this again.”

Pegasus walked around to the left side of the bed and into Seto's view, and Seto dropped his gaze to Mokuba, who shuffled out in front of Pegasus with one of Pegasus's hands over his eyes.

“So you let me out of my room and I can't see anything?” Mokuba said.

That was Mokuba's voice. Pegasus couldn't have faked that.

“Do you understand me?” Pegasus asked.

Seto nodded and the hand came away.

“Seto!”

Pegasus managed to get out a “Careful!” before Mokuba jumped on the bed, wrapping his arms around Seto as best as he could, but mostly ended up just hugging his head. Unable to return the hug, Seto leaned his forehead against Mokuba's to try to decide if he was just another hallucination. He felt real. He sounded real.

“Seto, you're—” Mokuba paused to lean back, just enough that he could take in the room and glance down the bed. “—you're cuffed to a hospital bed.” And then he turned on Pegasus. “You told me he was downstairs. We didn't go down any stairs.”

“He had an unexpected operation just yesterday.”

Mokuba ran his hands over Seto's shoulders and snagged at something around his collarbone, so Mokuba tugged down Seto's collar until he found the tube taped down. Seto stared at Mokuba's hands and his face in search of anything that might prove this Mokuba was another part of his delusions.

“What's this?”

“Intravenous feeding. He's not going to be getting up for a while.”

Seto checked everywhere he could see, looking for any sign that Mokuba wasn't as fine as Pegasus had claimed. If this wasn't a hallucination, then Mokuba seemed to be just as okay as his painting had indicated. Seto's vision was getting less blurred, and the clarity just added to his relief.

“And what was the operation?” Mokuba asked.

“Appendectomy,” Seto answered so Pegasus was out of the conversation. “Are you okay?”

Mokuba nodded and fell back into a hug. The restraints still held tight and kept Seto from returning the hug, which might have helped prove if Mokuba was really there. He was so lightheaded that he could hardly focus on Mokuba, hallucination or not.

Seto tried to pull away as Pegasus stepped closer to the bed, reaching down toward Mokuba. He was going to take Mokuba away again so soon, but no, it was Seto's hand he grabbed, and a few gentle movements later, Seto's hand was freed.

“Two minutes, Kaiba brothers.”

Wasting no time wrapping his arm around Mokuba, Seto pulled him in closer and ignored the tugs he felt on the IV lines. Half of his thoughts centered on Mokuba, who he could see for the first time in months, and the other half tried to figure out why Pegasus had unlocked his hand.

“He said that we will be moving in together whenever he trusts us,” Mokuba said. He sat up, leaving Seto little choice but to keep a grip on his arm to ensure Pegasus wouldn't pull him away and that Mokuba wouldn't just disappear.

All of the words Seto wanted combine into a coherent thought jumbled in his head, so he nodded in hopes that his point got across.

“Does that mean we're going to?” Mokuba asked. From his tone and the expression, Seto knew that Mokuba was doing his best to ask the question he couldn't vocalize. “Are you going to get him to trust you?”

“Yes, yes, Mokuba,” and he pulled Mokuba back down into a hug as best as he could with one hand. After all, Seto couldn't think about escaping until he was with Mokuba.

“And you're okay other than the appendix thing?” Mokuba asked.

“I'm fine.”

But Mokuba spun on Pegasus, and Seto could only imagine the dark glare Pegasus received. “He's lying. What's wrong with him?”

“Morphine and your brother must not get along. He isn't thinking clearly right now.”

“Then why not bring me to him when he's fully awake?”

“I just can't win with you two,” Pegasus muttered. “And your time is nearly up. Begin with your tragic farewells.”

“But I have time,” Mokuba said. “Add ours together.”

Pegasus wouldn't change his schedule, especially when he hadn't planned on bringing Mokuba in. Although Seto wanted Mokuba to stay, he understood how fragile the little traces of trust Pegasus had shown were. A wrong step and it could be over in a shattering instant.

“Your birthday, I'll see you on your birthday,” Seto said, making it a firm statement rather than anything hopeful. If Pegasus reneged, then it would be on him, not on anything Seto had done.

“I can't keep doing this, Seto. Please.”

“Please get us out of this.”

“It's okay, kid. I promise. It needs time.”

“Just give me some time.”

“Speaking of time,” Pegasus said. “Unfortunately it has expired.”

“Wait. Just, come here,” Seto said. He wouldn't let go of Mokuba, not before he had a way to confirm that this was real, that he verified that Mokuba was okay. He would have to go another two months without him, and without proof, Seto might believe this was all just a dream. He waved Pegasus back and told him to be quiet. He brought Mokuba down once more to whisper.

“Telling secrets isn't nice,” Pegasus said.

“I'll explain, just—” Seto shook his head and leaned up to whisper in Mokuba's ear anyway, “—send me a note with the word 'sunset' in it.”

Mokuba nodded as he was pulled away. He tripped coming off the bed, his legs stumbling as he tried to find purchase on the floor. He looked about ready to cry, but he managed to keep his face dry and his expression almost controlled. When Pegasus's hand moved to cover Mokuba's eyes, Mokuba held Seto's gaze until the last second, and then his eyes closed.

“I'll be right back, Kaiba-boy.”

“Promise, Seto?”

“I promise.”

And as quickly as they had entered, they left, and Seto was alone with an open door and a free hand.

The shackles remaining on his hand and feet had actual locks on them that required a key to break free from. The free hand tested to see if Seto would try anything, because Seto wouldn't have with Mokuba in the room. But Pegasus had left him alone, not for long, Seto was sure, but it might have been enough time for Seto to sit up to find something to help him. The table beside the bed was on the wrong side for Seto to reach it.

Instead of trying, he just covered his face for some semblance of privacy while he worked through the emotions that accompanied seeing Mokuba. Relief, because Mokuba was fine. Anger, because Pegasus had actually kidnapped both of them. Frustration, because Mokuba was upset and Seto couldn't do anything about it but make promises that he had no way of upholding without Pegasus's consent. And exhaustion, because for some reason, the situation hadn't felt as real as it had in that first moment when Seto had seen Mokuba.

He had been a prisoner for months. Mokuba had been a prisoner for months.

There was no end in sight.

Pegasus had been right. This wasn't a game.

Seto kept his face covered, so he heard Pegasus enter rather than having to watch him do so. He hated the sentiment of gratefulness that had wormed its way in to his weakened conscious. He shouldn't have to be grateful for seeing Mokuba. Pegasus shouldn't have Mokuba. Being drugged messed with Seto's head and turned horrifying situations into ones that Seto looked forward to.

“I trust you believe me know?” Pegasus asked.

“You actually kidnapped Mokuba. Again.”

“Yes, but I don't need anything from him this time aside from his presence. That's definitely an improvement.”

Seto shook his head and pressed his fingers even harder against his face. He jostled his glasses and certainly smudged them, but found the words needed to say, “How can you not feel guilty about this?”

“Why ever should I feel guilty?”

“You uprooted seven people from their lives. My brother is thirteen. He won't get to finish school or learn how to drive. He's never going to have a first date or go to college. You've taken his life away from him just to make yourself feel better about your own pathetic existence.”

“The medicine is making you too candid, Kaiba-boy. I suggest you backtrack.”

Pegasus grabbed Seto's wrist with enough force to pull his hand from his face, and then lowered it back to the cuff. There was no point in fighting, but Seto couldn't make it easy on Pegasus, so he held it back with what little strength he had after the surgery and months imprisoned. It took a few seconds for Pegasus to secure the cuff, but then he didn't move away.

“Congratulations. You've managed to get me past the point of anger. You're in a select group, Max.”

“What's the point past anger?” Pegasus asked. His tone sounded amused and Seto shot it down.

“Horror. Because apparently kidnapping a ten-year-old wasn't enough, not enough to keep him chained in a dungeon and then rip his soul from his body. You had to give said boy three years to try to move past that terrible event in his life, a time that kept him up crying for months after the fact, and then force him to relive it. But reliving it wasn't enough. You want him to pretend like he wants to be here, in the very place that has caused so many of his nightmares.”

Pegasus opened his mouth, but Seto kept going.

“And here you are, acting so callous about all the torture that you forced this child through, that you put me through. So I'll ask again, why the hell should we do anything you've asked us to when you clearly don't care what hardships you've caused?”

A hand cupped Seto's cheek, and when Seto tried to lean out of it, Pegasus followed.

“Your time's up, little prince. Don't be greedy.”

A few light taps against Seto's cheek, and Pegasus removed his hand and left.


	13. Chapter 13

“Good morning, Kaiba-boy. Did you manage to sleep any?”

Seto shook his head and winced at the movement. The pain medicine took the worst of the burning, itching, and searing pain away, but left the majority. He couldn't even find a comfortable position, because Pegasus insisted that he move every few hours, which meant a team of men standing guard while the doctor repositioned Seto and handcuffed him on his left side or back to the original spot. Neither position offered much leeway.

But his head was mostly clear, aside from the pain making him hazy.

“I'm sorry to hear that. Maybe you'll get a nap this afternoon. But until then, we've got a lot to do in a little time this morning. I hope you don't mind if I visit a while longer.”

Pegasus walked around to the left side of the bed, dragging the chair along with him. Seto was in one of his shifts lying on his side, his left hand still in the cuff while his right was handcuffed to the side rail beside his face. His right leg was bent at the knee and pulled up toward his waist, unrestrained.

“My muscles will atrophy,” Seto said. He tried to glare at Pegasus, but was too tired to locate his hate. He thought of the catheter to try to muster up his energy, although the exhaustion still won out.

“I'll print out some physical therapy exercises for when you get back downstairs.”

He wore a grey suit and a yellow tie, the yellow bright enough that Seto had a hard time looking at it. Seto wondered if his own clothes were around the castle somewhere. The suit he wore to the convention hadn't been one of his best, but he still wanted it back.

“I'm not in any shape to sprint past you. You could let me walk.”

Seto's glasses had slid down his nose, and Pegasus reached out a finger to push them back up.

“You've calmed considerably since last night.”

“Shouting doesn't get me anywhere.”

“You did start quite the tantrum, little—”

“Don't call me that. Kaiba-boy is bad enough.”

Pegasus smirked. “But it's ever so fitting. You're entitled and spoiled, and you need people to wait on you hand and foot.”

“Not if you'd let me have my hands and feet back.”

“Oh, you're such a hoot. I'll tell you what. I'll refrain from any little prince comments so long as you stop lashing out at me. Words can hurt, you know,” Pegasus said. He settled into his chair and crossed a leg over the other.

“You knew what you were getting into with me.”

A spot on Seto's jaw started to itch, so he stretched his fingers back to scratch it, just half an inch away from the spot he needed. It didn't do much to help, but there wasn't anything else he could do with his hands bound. He had never thought he would be ready to get back to that glass room, but here he pined for the days before these limited movements.

“Some sparkling wit and humorous anecdotes?”

“Your other prisoners must be more lively. And not chained to a bed.”

“So long as you consider yourself a prisoner, I'm going to have to treat you like one. Aren't you ready to just trust me already?”

“Do you shackle all your visitors then?”

“Only my troublemakers.”

Seto saw his opening.

“And what trouble have I made since being here? If we’re pretending Duelist Kingdom didn't happen, or that everything before this didn't happen, what trouble have I caused you?”

“You've been rude.”

“After you locked me in a cage.”

“You're insulting.”

“Little prince and Kaiba-boy are both insults, which you started, not me.”

“You helped Ryou.”

“I pointed him in the direction I knew you were in. For all I knew, he was a guest and he was looking for you.”

“You're a liar.”

“Prove it.”

“I think we are both aware that had you woken up in one of my typical guest suites, you would have tried to slip away.”

“I’m guilty of a hypothetical?”

Pegasus checked his watch, which Seto took as a sign that their eye contact was too much pressure. Seto knew how to talk people in circles, and Pegasus was no different, even if he sat in the power position at this point.

“Even disregarding Duelist Kingdom, you've still ignored me—”

“A direct effect of Duelist Kingdom. If you're disallowing me from holding that against you, you have to do the same.”

Pegasus was silent, and Seto took it as a sign that he was pulling at the right thread to bring Pegasus's scheme apart. “At least if you had given me the chance to prove myself untrustworthy, you could blame this—” Seto tugged weakly at his handcuffed wrist to avoid unnecessary movement, “—excessiveness on me. But as I've been given no opportunity to fail, I'd say I'm the more trustworthy between us.”

“What is your point with this little speech of yours?”

“You can infer my point.”

“I'm not letting you roam about freely yet. You're still holding on to your prejudices from our past. I plan on doing the same.”

Seto angled his head down, trying to look put off, but actually pleased with himself for making Pegasus so uneasy. Pegasus trying to be too emotionally distant from the situation seemed to be working in Seto's favor, and led to the emotional honesty Pegasus commented on a while back. Even if Seto faked the honesty, Pegasus couldn't prove it.

“Is it time for me to roll over?”

“I'm not sure. I can check with Torra. Besides,” Pegasus said, reaching forward to scratch at Seto's cheeks, where a day and a half's worth of stubble had come up. “—you need a shave.”

“Do I get uncuffed for that?”

When Pegasus grinned, Seto groaned and closed his eyes. He didn't know what would be worse, having Pegasus shave his face, or letting Pegasus mock him when it grew out.

“Just leave it,” Seto said.

“Nope. I've got my sights set on it. Don't give me that grimace, now. It's going to come out splendidly. Why I shaved myself just this morning and see! Not a nick.”

Seto opened his eyes, although not to check the accuracy of Pegasus's statement. “Let me do it.”

“I doubt you could even sit up, Kaiba-boy. Don't worry. I'll do a marvelous job with your face.”

Tugging on the handcuff didn't make it snap or crack the side rail. The effort hurt and Seto still couldn't go anywhere. Even when Pegasus walked out the door to call out into the hallway for Torra, Seto couldn't find enough strength to make the plastic railing snap. If he just had a hand, he could fight back somewhat.

Torra and two guards came in, one reaching over the bed to grab Seto's wrist before the handcuff was unlocked, and the other walking around to hold down his shoulders. Torra unlocked the cuff and gently turned Seto over so the guard holding his hand could lock it in the restraint at his side.

His foot followed, and Pegasus returned with a can of shaving cream and a razor.

“That had better not be used,” Seto said.

“Brand new. Nothing but the best for your face.”

He sat on the edge of the bed, propping the can between Seto's arm and his chest, and setting the razor on Seto's shoulder. Seto's glasses came off next, and Pegasus was just far enough away that Seto couldn't make out his features clearly.

Torra checked Seto's bandages and the IV that was still attached by his collarbone. Seto didn't look at her while she worked, but did glance down for a glimpse of his incision site. But his shirt was lifted up to block his view. It might not have been helpful anyway. Seto's waist was at the edge of his clear vision.

“I’ll do it,” Seto said.

“Shush. I'm perfectly capable of giving you a clean shave. But you know if you're fidgety, you might get cut. So stay still.”

Pegasus grabbed the can of shaving cream and sprayed too much into his hand. Seto shifted as best as he could only to be reprimanded by Torra for moving too much, but had a harder time staying still when Pegasus lathered Seto's face with the shaving cream, covering his mouth with a large pile of it.

“Oh no! I guess you shouldn't talk. Wouldn't want anything to slip in that big mouth of yours.”

Seto glared, but couldn't see if it had any impact. He stayed still while Pegasus finished rubbing the shaving cream all over Seto's cheeks and neck, then announced, “I forgot a rag. Be right back.” And Seto was left in the bed with a face and mouth covered with shaving cream. He didn't remember too much about the conversation from the previous night, but he had a few pieces of it floating around in his memory.

Pegasus got even in irritating ways.

After he returned, passing Torra as she left, he got to work right away, reminding Seto once more to stay still. It took effort not to move while Pegasus dragged the blade across his skin. His fingers twitched to reach up for the razor, and he kept swallowing on reflex.

“Maybe I shouldn't have brought Mokuba in,” Pegasus said. His voice was deep and thoughtful, and Seto leaned away from the razor to shake his head.

“Does that mean 'no I shouldn't have brought him in' or 'no I should have brought him in?'”

Seto couldn't answer because the amount of shaving cream over his mouth would certainly collapse with the gravity. But Pegasus reached out a finger and ran it over Seto's lips to wipe away the excess.

“It's better now that I've seen him,” Seto said. “I wouldn't have believed you otherwise.”

The razor snagged around Seto's jaw, and Pegasus mumbled an apology. It didn't feel like it drew blood.

“It made you angry.”

“I'm mad he’s here.”

Pegasus ran the rag over Seto's face to clean the area he finished. “What do you really have to go back to?”

Pegasus had to think that since he had KaibaCorp and Mokuba, Seto would have been more content to stay on the island. It was a ridiculous theory from a ridiculous man, so it didn't come as a surprise to Seto when he heard it behind Pegasus's actual words.

“A life not strapped to a bed? Not trapped behind a glass wall? Being able to work, even if it isn't for KaibaCorp? Spending time with my only living family? Not having to see you every day? I can keep going, if you need me to.”

“You could have a much more interesting life out here.”

“I'm not interested in exploring your island or reading in your library. I'm never going to want to be here.”

“Then this,” Pegasus said, lightly tapping a finger on the cuff on Seto's wrist. “—is just how it is going to be.”

“Why are you pretending like the things you say aren't threats? Promising something good, or your idea of good, doesn't detract from the negative of refusal.”

“So don't refuse.”

“Wouldn't your time be better spent focusing on Muto or Gardner? They seem more inclined to playing along.”

He heard Pegasus's snort before a quiet, “I need to get your chin,” to signal Seto into pulling back his bottom lip for a smoother surface. Seto compiled for lack of a better option.

“I didn't bring you along for the ride, Kaiba-boy.”

Waiting for the blade to lift a safe distance from his lips, Seto thought through his answer and said, “I'd be more inclined if I didn't have to go back to that room.”

“Accept my sincerest apologies, then. I can't bring you up with little Mokuba yet.”

“Why not?”

“Because you need to learn to get along with me aside from your brother's influence. I put you two together now and you'll never talk to me and that will just be tragic.”

Pegasus put a finger on Seto's chin to tilt his face over, putting the right side in Pegasus's view. Seto's lips were starting to feel crusty from the thin layer of shaving cream that had dried on them, but he didn't comment on it.

“I could give you my word that we'd still talk.”

“And how would I know if I could believe you?”

Seto waited a few seconds for the razor to move so Pegasus could wipe it clean. “Isn't trust the whole point of this?”

A smile, and Pegasus tapped his finger against Seto's nose, smearing a bit of the shaving cream. “No.”

Heaving an exasperated breath that hurt more than it accomplished, Seto lifted his chin at Pegasus's prompting. He hated exposing his neck so much. Not having his high collars and ties was maddening enough, but exposing the bare entirety made the twitching resume.

“You told me we were supposed to be getting to trust each other.”

“We are, but it's not the whole point.”

Seto thought that might have been the first time he accidentally asked a specific question. Thinking too deeply on it hurt, so Seto just asked, “Then what is the whole point?”

“The million dollar question. Tilt this way a bit. One more spot to go.”

“Tell me.”

Pegasus withdrew the razor and started wiping down Seto's face and neck. The rag was cool, more sensitive on Seto's neck than it had been on his face. If he could bear to spend the rest of the day, possibly longer, with the shaving cream on, he would have tried to stop Pegasus. Maybe he wouldn't notice that it made Seto uncomfortable.

“Forgive me, but I can't. You'll figure it out.”

The rag came away after a minute. Seto's skin still felt sticky, but it could have just been from the moisture clinging to him. He peeked to see if Pegasus was done, and started tugging at the cuffs again, ignoring the blistering pain in his side.

“No,” he said, because Pegasus had already started tearing the packaging for the toothbrush.

“Just because you're being fed through a vein like an invalid doesn't mean that your teeth don't need to be brushed. And look! Bubblegum flavored.”

“Really, unlock a hand. I'll do it.”

“It's getting very difficult not to call you little prince. Are you sure I can't have that one?”

He squeezed some of the pink toothpaste onto the bristles and Seto scowled at the cartoon character glaring at him from the tube. Seto locked his jaw because there was no way Pegasus would get that into his mouth. Shaving was one thing. People went to barber shops to pay for that service and while Seto didn't like it, it wasn't nearly as degrading as what Pegasus was asking.

“Come on, now. Say 'ahh!' Here comes the airplane! No? I'm not going to unlock a hand.”

Seto couldn't answer without giving Pegasus an opportunity to slip the brush between his teeth, so he applied more pressure between his teeth. Pegasus didn't have all day to wait.

“Now you're being troublesome and you can't deny that. At least I'm not hand feeding you. Or making you use a bedpan.”

Threats weren't changing Seto's mind on the subject. He would let his teeth rot before giving Pegasus the chance. It wouldn't have been difficult to let Seto brush his own teeth, and there would be no point in trying anything with only one hand unlocked.

“I'll give you another something from Mokuba.”

In a flash, Seto remembered the request he had made of Mokuba the previous day. Pegasus's comment provided no useful information to tell if the something referred to was a note, and with the toothbrush an inch from his mouth, Seto couldn't ask.

“He made it sound very important that I got this to you. Ah well.”

Seto's foot bounced a few times before the pain made it inexpedient. If Mokuba was sending him something, it had to be a note with the keyword in it. But Pegasus could have overheard Seto's request–he hadn't been clearheaded enough to make sure he was actually whispering to Mokuba–and forged the note.

The toothbrush was still in place by Seto's mouth. Pegasus made it sound like he gave up, but he also hadn't moved.

“Look, you're going to be here until you've healed completely. I'm talking smooth skin and a scar, which could take a while. We are going to be doing this every day whether you like it or not. And I don't mind, Kaiba-boy. It's not like I've never done this for someone else.”

The more Pegasus mentioned brushing Seto's teeth, the worse his mouth tasted. He told himself that it was just a mental reaction because it had been over a day since he had brushed his own teeth, even though he hadn't eaten anything in that time.

Pegasus gave Seto's cheek a few little slaps, not painful, but more to draw his attention up to Pegasus, who he still couldn't see well.

“Don't be difficult. I'm trying to make this all easier on you. If you are going to be a troublemaker, I'm going to have to sedate you because I'm not going to let your teeth fall out so you can prove a point.”

Seto doubted two weeks without brushing his teeth would be that harmful. Maybe an infection or something, but his teeth would stay put. But he did not want to be sedated again. After waking up in the glass room with no memories, and even two months later, missing several of them, the chance wasn't worth it. The whole point of going off the morphine and spending a night in intense pain was for a clear head.

And Pegasus would still end up brushing his teeth.

He opened his mouth and moved his gaze away from Pegasus. Pegasus gave him a “Many thanks” before getting started.

It was worse than Seto imagined it would be. Pegasus leaned in for a closer look and Seto was able to see his face without his glasses. He was too calm for the situation, too intent on what he was doing. The toothbrush triggered Seto's gag reflex any time Pegasus moved it to the molars. He knew Pegasus wasn't trying to gag him with it, but the movements were out of his control and put him on edge.

“It's safe to swallow, you know. We'd have a problem if I tried to get you all rinsed out.”

Pegasus removed the toothbrush. Seto closed his mouth and ran his tongue over his teeth to try to get rid of the cloying flavor that clumped between his teeth and clung to his gums.

“That wasn't so bad, right?”

A thousand responses popped up as a possibility, but Seto just said, “You have something from Mokuba?”

“I do! Hold let me just—here it is.”

He put Seto's glasses back on before bringing out a folded piece of paper of his breast pocket, transferring the toothbrush to his left hand to hold up the paper. “'Seto, I'm working on a new painting. My landscapes aren't great, but this sunset isn't too bad. Maybe I can send it to you too. Mokuba.'”

Seto wanted to reach for it, but had to settle for Pegasus turning it to him. That was Mokuba's handwriting, his signature, and the word Seto had asked him to write. So it had been Mokuba. That part had been real.

“I assume it means something?” Pegasus said.

“Proof I wasn't hallucinating.”

“You can keep the note. I'll leave it on that table for when you go back downstairs.”

“Isn't your time up?”

Pegasus checked his watch before gathering up the items he had left scattered on Seto's bed. “Alas it is. I'll be back tonight, but tomorrow is Saturday. I can bring the chess set in if you'd like.”

An hour and a half with no buffer for the conversation could be excessively difficult to get through, especially taking the pain and lack of sleep into account. So Seto nodded, although playing chess with Pegasus was about as interesting as staring at the static on the television all day.

“I'll be seeing you tonight.”

Pegasus didn't bother locking the door when he left, and Seto wasn't sure if it was supposed to be a sign of trust or if it just meant that Torra would be coming back soon. Seto wanted to blame his exhaustion at the situation, but everything was getting muddled. He was so tired, and what little progress he had made was overshadowed by Pegasus's overwhelming control and his lack of guilt for his past actions. Seto felt like he had been pounding his fists against that glass wall since he woke up trapped behind it.

If playing up Pegasus's guilt or playing to whatever sensibilities he had wouldn't work, then Seto was left with one option—playing into Pegasus's hands.


	14. Chapter 14

“Good afternoon, Kaiba-boy.”

As much as he didn't want to bring it up, Seto said, “I need to shower.”

Pegasus walked around the bed so Seto could see him. It was back to the red suit today.

“You would shower twice daily if I let you. Is that a compulsive thing?”

“Any excuse to get out of these cuffs,” Seto said, shaking the one up by his face. The movement stopped hurting a few days back, now just the occasional pain if he aggravated it. But according to Torra, that wasn't good enough to be considered completely healed. She estimated another two weeks.

“Either way, I was planning on letting you tonight. You'll have to be quick though. We still just have fifteen minutes.”

Pegasus waved a hand, which was followed by footsteps. Seto turned his head as best as he could to see three of Pegasus's goons come in, all with blatant guns at their sides. Torra seemed small in comparison as she followed behind.

“I just want to shower,” Seto said. “I'm not going to try anything.”

“We'll see. Torra?”

And they began the process of getting Seto unhooked from the machines. The IV at his collarbone was left in place with a very strict warning not to touch it, and Torra taped down the length of tube that still stuck out after being disconnected, keeping it covered with a thin sheet of plastic. The catheter stayed in and Torra just gave the tape holding up the bag a quick check. One of the goons had a pair of pants with him, probably the same pair Seto had been wearing when brought up, and after unlocking his hands and feet, they handed them over so Seto could put them on while the blanket still covered him.

They had to help him to his feet. Seto's head spun at the sudden change and his legs protested after almost a week without use. The dizziness didn't go away, and he wondered if it was because he hadn't actually eaten anything in so long.

Pegasus led the group into the hallway, keeping an eye on Seto all the while. Because he was being so closely observed, Seto didn't look around like he wanted to, but focused on the floor and making sure his feet were steady underneath him.

He was ready to quit by the time they reached the bathroom. It couldn't have been more than a few yards, but each step tugged at his side. The way they were supporting his arms resulted in them being slightly raised, and raising the right one hurt.

But he saw the bench in the shower and almost thanked Pegasus. His legs might not have held up without support. He couldn't remember a time ever feeling this lethargic, this weak. Maybe it was just the pain killers making him groggy.

“The door stays open,” Pegasus said. Seto just nodded while focusing on his breathing. Now that they had stopped moving, every inhale came a little easier.

Pegasus instructed his guards to stay outside the room, one on either side of the doorway, maybe to grab Seto should he try to sprint past, but it kept them from seeing inside, so that was something. Seto didn't see where the third guard went, but Torra stayed to give Seto instructions–“Don't scrub it. Warm water, not hot. Soap's fine. Pat dry.”–before she left.

“Going to watch?” Seto asked. He placed a hand at the edge of the tub to support him as he sat on the edge, staring at Pegasus and waiting for him to leave.

“I think you're going to be needing some help getting that shirt off, Kaiba-boy.”

After days of arguing to be able to brush his own teeth, Seto doubted Pegasus would leave if he asked. But for his own mental well-being, Seto did anyway. “I'm fine. You can go.”

“Raise your right arm over your head and I will.”

“I'll manage.”

“You'll manage to hurt yourself. I'm just going to help get your shirt off. I trust you can wiggle your way out of your pants on your own.”

Seto lifted his shoulder and winced, but kept going, raising his elbow up to about his ear. “There,” he said, keeping it up. “Now go.”

Pegasus laughed and did the opposite. He caught Seto's arm before he had the chance to lower it.

“Don't be so stubborn. It's only going to take a few seconds, and the longer you stall, the less time you'll have to shower.”

The hem of Seto's shirt was lifted next, and Pegasus tugged it up to get Seto's arm through the sleeve. Seto had been grateful for the long sleeves before, but now hated them because it was almost impossible to get off without moving quite a bit. The help Pegasus provided was mostly in moving the shirt while Seto focused on keeping his body still.

“There, one sleeve off. Can you get the rest?”

Seto didn't look down because he didn't want Pegasus to. He didn't have many scars, but there had been several nights when Gozaburo hadn't been paying as careful attention as he should, and then there were the burns. His right arm had the worst one, a long, bubbled scar that went from his elbow halfway to his wrist. Most of the other ones were small and cigar shaped.

“I can.”

“I'll be just outside then. Cool, hot,” Pegasus said, indicating to each of the dials in the shower. He offered to set Seto's glasses by the sink, which Seto hadn't thought of beforehand, but allowed him to do.

When Pegasus said the door stayed open, Seto assumed that meant all the way. But Pegasus pulled it to behind him, giving Seto a little semblance of privacy. If Pegasus was really only giving him the standard fifteen minutes, Seto might have had five to finish getting undressed and to shower.

So he got to it, working the shirt the rest of the way off, only hitting a snag when it came to pulling his arm out of the other sleeve. The pants proved more problematic, because Seto couldn't lean forward. Getting them back up would be a struggle.

But he didn't end up needing the bench. His body adjusted to standing more easily than he expected, and once he had gotten his clothes off–and tossed over the curtain rod beside the towel–he showered for the first time in days, just using a hand on the wall to support himself. He focused his attention on his hair, washing it twice in the time he had and hoping the suds running down him would do a decent job of washing him.

Pegasus knocked and called “Water off. I'm entering in ninety seconds!”

Seto counted to ten before reaching for the handle. He toweled dry as best as he could without bending over, and although he was still wet, Seto reached for his pants. He expected they would be removed once he got back to the bed, but until then, he would wear them. Besides, they might help dry off what he couldn't reach. With a bit of maneuvering, he got them up before the door opened fully.

“Need help with the shirt again?” Pegasus asked.

Seto grabbed it to put it on before Pegasus got too close. It went more smoothly going on. He slid his right arm into the sleeve and just had to raise his shoulder slightly to get it over his head. The IV still attached was troublesome, but just meant Seto had to be more careful.

“You know I saw them,” Pegasus said. He waited until Seto pulled down the shirt to step forward and extend a hand to help Seto step over the edge of the tub. Seto ignored the blurry hand and stepped over with the support of the shower rod.

“Saw what?” Seto said, although he realized immediately that he should have left it without reply.

“They aren't so bad. The way you reacted to my asking about them, I thought you were littered with them.”

“My abuse wasn't severe enough to avoid discussion?”

Pegasus let out an annoyed huff while Seto reached for his glasses left on the vanity. “You're putting words in my mouth,” Pegasus said while Seto looked around to see if the toothbrush Pegasus had been using was nearby.

“Come on. We've got to get you back in bed.”

“I need to walk around a while. Half an hour, go see Bakura and Mokuba, then come back and restrain me.”

“I can't let you do that.”

Seto refused to move when Pegasus tried to lead him to the exit. “I shouldn't be this weak right now. Most people who have an appendectomy haven't been unable to exercise for two months and probably have been eating more than two meals a day.”

“Would you be willing to make a trade for it?”

“I shouldn't have to.”

“But would you regardless?”

Seto lifted a shoulder, his left because that was easier. “If that's what it takes, then yes.”

“Fine. I'll give you your half hour of exercise, locked in that room with supervision.”

“And?”

“You tell me a story from your childhood. A happy one.”

Seto's mind fell blank trying to think of anything that would fit the description, but he had half an hour to come up with something, even if it was just half an hour to think of a lie. No, he was supposed to be playing along. A half-truth, then.

This time, Seto let Pegasus escort him back to the room, doing a slightly better job at taking in his surroundings than he had on the way over. The shower helped clear his head, wake him up, and he didn't have to be supported with every step. He kept his movements casual, a glance around the guard in front of him to the long row of doors on the hallway, a quick peer down at his collar as if looking at the IV while actually trying to tell if the guns the men carried were real. Pegasus didn't comment, so if he noticed, he didn't care.

“Stand inside with him,” Pegasus said to one of the guards, and then to Seto, “Just walk. Don't touch anything.”

Another nod just to get Pegasus to calm down, and Seto went back inside the infirmary, followed by the guard. He ran his fingers back through his hair while he could, hoping to get it dry before Pegasus confined him to the bed again.

The door closed and Seto walked over to the window. He held his hands at his sides so the guard could see them. The last thing he wanted was to end up getting tazed at the beginning of the half hour. Right now, his focus was on the window.

It overlooked the forest, a thick copse that extended in either direction, opening up to Seto's right where one of the duel arenas had likely been. He couldn't see if it was still there or not. But he wasn't facing the front of the island, and the sun was setting on Seto's left, so he was likely on one end of the castle. Seto wouldn't quite call the hill blocking his view of the ocean a mountain, but it was just about at an even height as the window.

The guard shuffled so Seto started walking. That had been the agreement, of course, which the guard must have overheard. Seto had specifically asked to walk around during his time. The infirmary wasn't that much bigger than Seto's room downstairs, but he didn't have the luxury of being picky.

He considered addressing the guard. It was a strategy he hadn't tried yet, but just picking up on the man's twitchy hands, always seeming to move toward the gun, Seto didn't count it as a real choice.

Instead, he settled with, “I'm not going to try anything.”

The guard gave Seto a derisive “Hn,” as if to say, “Of course you won't. I'd shoot you.”

Seto lapped the room, walking around the edges and the bed, keeping his hands away from anything and occasionally against his side. He tried not to press against the incision site since it hadn't been rebandaged, but every few seconds a step would hurt and his hand moved instinctively to grab it.

After a few laps, Seto slowed and started considering what story to give Pegasus. It would have to involve Mokuba, probably only Mokuba to limit any inquiries about Seto's mother or the other figures in his life who hadn't been so bad. And he doubted it could be short, at least, not as short as Seto would have preferred.

It couldn't be too personal either. Pegasus would be more inclined to believe Seto the more removed he was from the story. If he sounded too sentimental, Pegasus would assume it was a lie.

There were happy moments in Seto's life. He wasn't nearly stubborn enough to argue the negative as a whole. But a moment did not equal a story, and that was where he hit the snag. His childhood, while eventful, was primarily just busy. The memories before his father's death were few and faint, and everything that came after was just a scrabble to keep Mokuba protected. Mokuba was a bright spot that made the trouble worthwhile, but spots and moments didn't equal a story.

Taking a moment and expounding it into a story would be his best option. He wasn't much of a story teller–his creative feats mostly limited to technological design–and he didn't think he would put that much effort into it. After all, Pegasus let Seto walk first. There was nothing forcing Seto to tell a story other than his situation, although Seto saw it for what it was.

By the time Pegasus got back, Seto had a decent idea of the story he would tell and how he would deliver it.

“In the bed,” Pegasus said. Torra came in with him, along with two more goons.

Seto looked out the window one last time before following the direction. His legs were tired from standing for so long, but he still hoped that Pegasus would see he hadn't tried anything and let him up again the next day.

“How is Mokuba?”

“He's fine. Mostly wanted to check in on you. In need of new paint, particularly green.”

Seto sat, but didn't lie down at first. He eyed the restraints and wished they would rust.

“The restraints are unnecessary,” Seto said.

“Lie down, Kaiba-boy. I'm being courteous and you are snubbing it.”

Reminding himself that he decided to go along with Pegasus, Seto grabbed the side rail, jiggling the handcuffs still attached, and lowered himself down. Torra's presence likely meant more bandages, in addition to the IV being reattached. She let him get under the blanket before letting him know what she was doing, the first step involving taking off his pants so she had access to the catheter bag.

“You owe me a story.”

Pegasus sat on Seto's bed and put Seto's wrist into the cuff nearest to him. After Seto's pants were taken off, a guard reached under the blanket for his ankles, locking them down as well.

“Mokuba was five. I was ten,” Seto said. He looked down while Torra lowered the collar of his shirt to get to the plastic she had taped down over the IV. The silk shirt actually worked out in Seto's favor since it meant she didn't have to lift his shirt for access.

“Someone, I don't know who, paid for a day trip for all the kids in the orphanage home. A zoo just outside of town.”

Pegasus nodded and instructed a guard to get Seto's other wrist. The guard did so with little regard for Torra, shoving her aside to complete the task. She frowned, but waited until he was finished to continue with the IV.

“Mokuba liked the elephants. He saw a baby one and couldn't stop squealing about it. Still his favorite animal.”

And that completed Seto's story. It was straightforward and probably about what Pegasus had expected. Though Seto hardly knew with Pegasus anymore. Maybe he expected nothing out of the agreement they made. He had even gone with a true story, just devoid of any stated sentiment.

“So your happy childhood memory is watching Mokuba get excited?”

“It is.”

“Very well. Good night, Kaiba. I'll be back in the morning.”

Pegasus shooed the guards and Torra from the room, first checking to make sure that Torra had finished all that she needed to, and turned off the light behind them.

The room didn't get dark, not yet, not with the window and the sunset. Turning off the light just made the white walls look purple, and Seto watched the sky fade from orange to black.

  
Two weeks later, having been given the all-clear by Torra, Seto was led back down to his room. Seto had to surrender his glasses for the trip down, but that came after Pegasus tested Seto's eyesight, which Seto confirmed was just as terrible as the thickness of his lenses depicted.

Pegasus kept a hand on Seto's arm as they walked. It was probably to keep him from running, as unlikely as that would have been without his glasses, but it helped keep Seto steady. One of his hands clutched the note Mokuba had written for him, and his legs were weak after the time locked in bed, so each step had to be taken with precision. They took one flight of stairs–for exercise, Pegasus said–but Seto asked for an elevator immediately after. His muscles burned and his breaths shortened.

Seto could tell when they were getting closer to his room because Pegasus started fidgeting. He had to be worried that Seto would resist being locked back inside, and a few days before, Seto might have. But he had decided to play along with Pegasus, just until he was moved upstairs, and the glass divider would certainly keep Pegasus away and prevent him from interfering with Seto's hygienic routines any longer.

When they arrived at the glass cage, Seto paused before he let Pegasus lead him inside. He did consider running, but with Pegasus holding his arm and glasses, Seto didn't know how he could actually get away. Any struggle would have been for show, and Seto planned on a different performance.

“How long is it going to be until I get out again?” Seto asked. He tried looking in Pegasus's direction, but just saw a blur of silver and red. His gaze had to have seemed unfocused, but Pegasus's reaction to it was hidden, just a blur with his hair.

“Hopefully not very long. I'm quite ready for you to move up from here.”

“I haven't fought back. You don't have to do this.”

“I'm holding a sedative, Kaiba-boy. Please don't make me give it to you.”

Seto leaned away from Pegasus's grip, but couldn't break free of it. He couldn't prove or disprove Pegasus's statement, but he didn't want to risk being sedated. It wasn't like it mattered, but he had already forgotten so much the first time around, he didn't want to risk losing anything else.

“Just give me a second.”

Seto's leg bounced as he tried to fight off the urge to run. He couldn't actually allow Pegasus to just lock him away again, to leave him back in the display case for an indefinite future. He understood why not fighting was beneficial, but couldn't convince his body to take the necessary steps inside. Maybe if he hadn't just had surgery, he would have felt more confident in his abilities to physically fight back, but for once, Pegasus might have had the upper hand with him. If the stairs gave Seto trouble, landing a kick on Pegasus's face would have been harder.

And then there were the guards to consider.

“Come on, Kaiba-boy.”

Pegasus spoke softly, and Seto wanted to believe it was because he was upset about putting Seto back in the cage. If that was the case, then Pegasus's remorse could be useful. He clearly didn't feel any for Duelist Kingdom, so Seto would just have to make him as remorseful as possible for current events.

“Mokuba's birthday. You said you'd let me see him then.”

“I was planning to bring him down.”

Seto shook his head. That wouldn't work.

“He shouldn't have to see this.”

“It's just going to have to be like this for a while.”

Seto shook his head, stalling because his legs still refused to move. “I've seen the pictures of Mokuba's room. Why not just lock me in something like that?”

“This is your room.”

With a little nudge, Seto's legs started working, if not just to keep himself from tumbling over. But as long as Pegasus's hand was on Seto's arm, the glass couldn't be lowered. It wasn't very comforting, but gave Seto more time to appeal to Pegasus.

His appeals wouldn't work. Seto understood that. But there was a chance that if he asked enough, kept his voice low, and left touches of desperation in his tone, that Pegasus would feel guilty. It might not happen at first, but the more Seto laid it on, the better his chances.

Pegasus led Seto to the bed, using his grip on Seto's arm to lower him.

“My glasses,” Seto said.

“I'll give them back when the door is closed.”

“Or give them to me now so I can prove you can trust me.”

“Can I trust you?”

“I haven't tried anything so far.”

“You've literally told me that you were going to fight me.”

Seto sighed and did remember saying that. “And you literally made it so I couldn't. If I have to be here, I'd rather be here with Mokuba.”

Pegasus's hand left Seto's arm, and Seto knew that meant the glass was about to come down. He started to stand, to follow the blur that was Pegasus, but a hand on his shoulder pushed him back down.

“You're supposed to content yourself staying here.”

“That's a lot to ask when you've taken away the three most important things to me.”

“And what's that?”

“Mokuba, free will, and my company. I'll relent two of the three if you'll just let me stay with Mokuba.”

Seto heard the grating of the glass coming down. It sounded worse than it had going up. The finality of it all made Seto turn his head away to give himself a moment without Pegasus's scrutiny. He cursed his eyesight again for taking away his option of running, and the glass made a resounding thud as it hit the floor. Just like that, he was trapped again.

“I'll slide your glasses through,” Pegasus said, now in the garbled tones of the speaker. Seto couldn't see the hatch, or even where the glass started, so he stayed on the bed to wait for Pegasus to leave before making the embarrassing display of blindly fumbling through the room.

Seto waited, and when he couldn't see the fuzzy red outline of his suit, he got up and counted the steps he thought it took to get from his bed to the glass. He had done a lot of pacing, so was fairly accustomed to tracing the same path, but he veered a few feet to the side to avoid stepping on his glasses, which would have been on the floor. His shoulder bumped into the glass first since he had been edging forward on his side, and then he knelt down to run his fingers over the concrete.

“A bit in front of you.”

Seto obeyed the instruction, and when his glasses were back on, turned to see Pegasus standing in the hallway, far enough down that Seto hadn't been able to see him from the bed. He should have noticed the speaker still on.

“Shouldn't you be gone?” Seto asked. He didn't turn to look at Pegasus, but went back to sit on his bed. He was exhausted from the walk down, and he still on mild pain medication that had drowsiness as a side effect. He wanted to sleep, but couldn't do so until Pegasus left.

“The duct has to be reattached. I'd turn on the music, but you did curse at me several times upstairs.”

“I was fairly heavily drugged.”

“I didn't think you were the type to make excuses, Kaiba-boy.”

Pegasus stepped back into sight, now accompanied by a group of men who carried a ladder. They got to work straight away, and Seto watched them instead of Pegasus. He hoped that one or more of them would glance at him. Making unapologetic eye contact would certainly garner some sympathy.

“I don't like excuses, but being doped on morphine is a reasonable one.”

“Music stays off until tomorrow.”

Seto gave up on watching the men because they were too focused on their work, making it was obvious he was being ignored. They wouldn't slip up with Pegasus standing there, and Seto wasn't going to risk anything by trying to get one of them to break.

He fell back on the mattress and hated how he body seemed to recognize it as his. The bed felt smaller since he had been out of the room, and the whole room felt like it was closing in around him. Seto hadn't been claustrophobic before all this.

So Seto ended up back in the glass room, and Pegasus acted like nothing had changed. Pegasus came and went at the same times every day, brought down the same sort of meals, played chess on occasion, and Seto did what he could to control his temper. It kept the music on and kept Pegasus in a brighter mood. That led to a few more books and more evidence that Mokuba was doing well.

Building up trust around a glass wall was nonsense. Seto didn't believe half of what Pegasus told him, and half of what Seto told Pegasus was a lie. None of the lies were extreme enough that Seto would get caught in them, but simple and clean to allow him to avoid talking about aspects of his life he preferred kept secret.

Pegasus seemed happy.

Seto had lost track of the exact day after being upstairs, but he knew that a Tuesday was the next time Pegasus came down with anything of interest. A foam stress ball designed to look like the moon came with Seto's dinner.

“Good afternoon, Kaiba-boy.”

“Is that for me?”

Pegasus tossed the ball up and caught it with the same hand. “I thought you might like it. Break up the monotony of reading and all that- well, I suppose that is all.”

“So you brought me a toy?”

“I don't have to give it to you.”

Pegasus knelt at the hatch, ready to switch out Seto's plates, so Seto said, “I'll take it.”

The ball came through with the plate. Seto didn't get up for it, but stayed on the bed with a book in his lap. He hadn't moved in hours and could use a distraction though. Pegasus sounded a fraction better than scrubbing the bathroom again.

“I believe we were discussing your trip to Rome,” Pegasus said.

“I've said about all there was to it. Mokuba got food poisoning. We didn't do much.”

“So tell me about that. What does little Mokuba like for you to do while he is ill?”

Seto didn't like the question. “Nothing he'd want you to do.”

Pegasus laughed and closed the hatch door. He took his spot in the chair, carefully avoiding the chessboard still set up from their last match. Pegasus had gotten better with the practice, and their games were overlapping into different visiting sessions.

“I wasn't planning to try. Just making conversation.”

“Mokuba's a touchy kid. He wanted to sleep it off with me in the bed with him.”

“That's sweet.”

“He's probably outgrown it by now.”

Mokuba was growing, and especially at this stage in Mokuba's life, Seto wanted to be there for him. For all Seto knew, the next time he saw his brother, they would be at eye level. If Seto couldn't get out of this trap, then he would miss out on so much of Mokuba's life. Even though Seto didn't hit his growth spurt until he was fifteen, Mokuba's might hit at any time.

“I doubt it. I'm sure when you get out of here, he'll be nothing but hugs.”

“Unless you keep me here until so long that I miss the rest of his childhood.”

“That's a melodramatic view of it.”

“I haven't tried anything and I'm still in here.”

“It hasn't been that long.”

“If I was going to try something, don't you think I would have by now?”

“Heavens no, I think you will wait for your perfect, sneaky chance.”

“And I don't think you'll give me one. I think you just want to keep me in here.”

Pegasus pushed out of the chair and got to his feet, storming as much as a person could the three steps to the glass wall. “What is it going to take for you to believe that I don't want this for you? If I truly wanted you isolated down here, I would have lied about the others being here. You wouldn't know about your brother's presence in my home and you wouldn't get updates on him. I certainly wouldn't have let you see him when you were upstairs. I don't want this—” he said, knocking a fist on the glass.

“You set this up. If you didn't want it—”

“This is necessary. Think about it. I want you to actually think about it from my side and tell me that there is a better way to manage you.”

And Pegasus left.

Pegasus never voluntarily left before Seto's time was up. Seto did his best to keep any reaction off his face, just in case the camera was better than Pegasus let on. But Seto was thrilled to have gotten a reaction so strong out of Pegasus, who had been maintaining an excellent poker face for the duration of Seto's stay. Even though Seto had decided to play along, it was nice to have finally cracked that plastic mask his kidnapper had been wearing.

Seto went for the stress ball rather than the sandwich. He took it back to the bed, lying down so he could toss it in the air and have it fall back on him.

Maybe Pegasus was getting as frustrated with the set up as Seto. Referencing it repeatedly had been the only thing to grate on Pegasus, and if he snapped at that, it meant he was bothered Seto still wasn't trusting him.

Which was a problem for Seto, because Seto needed Pegasus to trust him in order to get to Mokuba. But Seto didn't see a way around it. If he wanted answers to his questions, then he had to ask–specifically, because apparently that was the only way to get answers from Pegasus.

He tossed the ball and caught it. Pegasus had other options, even if he didn't want to admit it. He owned an actual castle, which Seto was pretty certain he remembered being shipped over in pieces over the course of half a year. It was massive, and from visiting back at the start of his time as CEO, Seto knew exactly how many spare rooms were around, but Pegasus had to create this particular room for Seto? It was extreme even for him.

Seto tossed the ball again and tried not to look at the glass. Pegasus just as easily could have used a television screen or even just the voice over the intercom to communicate with Seto. Even if Pegasus didn't want Seto in an actual cliché of a dungeon, there were other places, and probably ones that required less initial construction and were equally out of the way of foot traffic.

But Pegasus had knocked on the glass when he asked Seto to think about it. It was the glass wall that was in question, not the room or the location. So Seto did what he was told and considered why Pegasus would choose the glass wall rather than a normal one.

At first, Seto assumed it was because it eliminated the need for a door. Seto could get out of a room given the time, no matter how the door or windows were locked. But this room had neither, so it kept him from leaving. All of the controls–all the control–was on the other side, out of Seto's reach no matter what he did.

It was the control. A single pane of glass, no matter how large it was, was a symbol of that. It took away every ounce of control Seto might have had. Without Pegasus, Seto had no food, no interaction, no way to be heard. Even the controls for the lights were on the other side. Seto was helpless because of the transparent two inches trapping him.

So Pegasus wanted Seto to feel helpless. That wasn't surprising. But what was surprising was the fact that Pegasus wanted Seto to try to envision it from the other way around. That typically implied that both parties should come to the same conclusion, although Seto couldn't fathom even Pegasus expecting him to agree with what had been done.

But for lack of anything better to do other than toss the foam ball in the air once more, Seto tried to switch their positions. If for some inane reason, he decided to kidnap Pegasus for company, how would Seto assert his authority? It wasn't like he had any places in his home suitable for holding someone, but Pegasus had to have created this room, so Seto supposed that he could have done something similar. It never would have been a glass wall.

Seto just didn't think that Pegasus would be as talented at sneaking out of rooms. The hypothetical of the situation being reversed didn't hold up or match their current situation. Maybe he was just thinking about it wrong. If the universe split and he somehow had to keep himself trapped, how would he do it? And not just trapped, but in such a way that the end result would equal trust?

Well, Seto knew he wouldn't ever trust anyone who put him in a dungeon. And any normal room Seto could get out of; he had enough practice of that when Gozaburo was around. Seto knew that he could have created a door strong enough to keep even himself locked inside, but the version of himself who was trapped wouldn't quit trying to get it open. Seto also understood that if there was a door, it meant that someone would be coming through it. He would try to fight anyone who came through, which meant that in order to keep himself trapped, Seto couldn't have a door.

He couldn't have contact with anyone, but in order to build the trust, he needed to be able to see his kidnapper and talk to him. And that led back to the glass wall. Of course, Seto still didn't think he would have gone for an entire wall, but maybe a window in place of the door. Either way, the end result came out to be as Pegasus had done. Even worse, Seto knew himself enough to understand his limited capability for trust. He had even thrown the fact in Pegasus's face.

Seto had been digging his own grave. Pegasus understood Seto's thought processes well enough to come to the same conclusion about how to keep him restrained, so he didn't have to be reminded of Seto's negative emotions. Seto was beginning to believe that it would be harder for Pegasus to overcome his lack of trust in Seto than for Seto to trust Pegasus.

Seto told himself that he would play along and he hadn't even upheld a promise to himself.

_Okay_ , Seto decided. _New strategy_.


	15. Chapter 15

“Good afternoon, Kaiba-boy.”

Seto stopped tossing the ball and sat up. He hadn't gotten a chance to test his new strategy that morning, since Pegasus had used the time to replenish all of Seto's toiletries and to grab his sheets to be washed. Pegasus had the sheets in the laundry basket he carried, along with a new set of clothes.

“I have a request.”

Pegasus smiled, but turned to set down the basket so that Seto only got a glimpse of it.

“I'll hear it out if you'll return the favor,” Pegasus said. “But you'll need to give me a moment to go grab your dinner.”

After receiving an unnecessary nod from Seto, Pegasus went back the way he had came, but returned seconds later. It made Seto wonder where the plate had come from, and if Pegasus had to bring something down to carry both the basket and the plate. It was probably useless information.

“Your request?” Pegasus said. He started going through the motions of opening the hatch, sliding out Seto's plate from that morning and replacing it with the new one. Seto got out of bed during that time to move the plate so his sheets could be passed through.

He put the plate on his side table next to his mug.

“There's a book series I've been meaning to read. Would you get it for me?”

“And what series is that?” Pegasus asked, reaching back for the sheets with one hand while using his other to keep the hatch door open.

“The Inheritance Cycle? The first of the books is called Eragon. Spelled like dragon, but switch the D for an E.”

“You want me to bring you a book series about dragons?”

Seto gave a short laugh like he thought it was funny and helped pull the sheet through the small opening. “Mokuba asked me to read them, but I never got around to it. Now is the best chance I'll get.”

Personal request. Personal information.

“I'll see if they can be picked up during the next grocery run.”

Seto inclined his head because a verbal thanks would be pushing the act too far too soon. Asking for more things to do didn't seem personal, or at least, it should have seemed impersonal enough that Pegasus wouldn't read too much into it, but throwing Mokuba's name into the request might have sounded like Seto was slipping. That was the idea, at least.

“Your turn.”

“Ah yes,” Pegasus said. “I would like to know your thoughts on the phrase, 'an eye for an eye.'”

“Literally or figuratively?” Seto asked, allowing a smirk.

“Figuratively, although I see the humor in the question coming from me.”

“I don't have many thoughts about it. If someone did something to harm me, my response would be circumstantial.”

Pegasus hmmed and brushed his hair over a shoulder.

“How about an example situation then? Say you get back home like you've been trying to do. I have your KC. Any retaliation?”

Seto picked up the mug of tap water from his side table and sat on the bed. He wasn't thirsty, but wanted to have something else to do during the conversation. Holding the cup allowed Seto to divide his focus and stall a little between questions.

“Honestly?”

A nod.

“Nothing.”

“You wouldn't try to get it back from me?” Pegasus asked. He fell into his usual position in the chair, kicking the now-empty basket aside. He settled his weight forward, as if anticipating Seto's response.

“I think that if Mokuba and I somehow managed to get out of here, I would go into hiding. I could do freelance work online to support us wherever we ended up.”

“That doesn't sound like the Kaiba-boy I know.”

“The Kaiba you knew hadn't been locked in a display case for months. If I got out and you didn't end up arrested, which knowing you would be a possibility, I would assume you would come after us again. I wouldn't put Mokuba anywhere you could find him.”

“I suppose that was a bad example. Let's try this one. You fire an employee and he slashes your tires.”

“Was he fired justifiably?”

Pegasus laughed. “Does it matter?”

Shaking his head, Seto turned the cup in his hands around. “Probably not. I'd see him charged for it and ensure his potential employers knew what he had done.”

“Then he has lost two eyes while you've just lost one.”

“But I lost four tires, so the math is still in my favor.”

Pegasus grinned again and leaned back. “Then you would agree with the notion of an eye for an eye.”

Seto took a sip of the water before nodding. He hadn't wanted the conversation to steer into Seto getting away, but Pegasus didn't seem offended by Seto's comments. Maybe it was the lack of fight in Seto that he found promising. Although, it wasn't like Seto said he would leave Industrial Illusions alone if he got out. He knew several viruses that could shut Pegasus down in an instant.

“Let's take it one step further then, hm?” Pegasus said, and from the tone, Seto couldn't help but imagine a wine glass in Pegasus's hand, held up like it was under scrutiny. “A life for a life?”

“I'm not a murder,” Seto said. He remembered Pegasus's accusation about Gozaburo's death and needed to reclarify.

“But let's say that back during my grand tournament, Yugi-boy and the others, but mostly Yugi-boy, had kept you from freeing little Mokuba. Say he had to pick a soul to save, and your brother's wasn't his priority. You could beg and plead your case, but in the end, he makes a choice that doesn't just ruin little Mokuba's chance at life, but destroys yours in the process.”

Pegasus paused, meeting Seto's gaze and holding it. “Would you feel justified taking his life, or the life of someone close to him, even if it didn't mean killing him?”

“You're forgetting what actually happened,” Seto said. He set down the cup when the conversation shifted to give his full attention. “They all knew you had Mokuba, but when it came to the confrontation at your front door, it wasn't Yugi or the rest of the Friendship Guild I threatened. Yugi did pick his grandfather, and I picked Mokuba. I don't hold that against him.”

“You might not know, Kaiba-boy, since you were so cleanly locked inside a card at the time, but at the end of the tournament, after I lost a game of my own creation, I never had to let you go. There was nothing anyone could have done about it. If I hadn't chosen to release you all, you would still be in the card.”

“What's your point?”

“That if I had given Yugi-boy the choice of who to let out, would you hold him to 'a life for a life' when he inevitably chose his grandfather?”

“Aside from that fact that my soul would have been in a card and I wouldn't be able to enforce it, no. I wouldn't hold him to it.”

“I thought you loved your brother more than that.”

Seto swallowed down his anger and reminded himself that Pegasus needed to see Seto willing to open up. He couldn't allow anger, but he felt comfortable getting away with irritation and resentment.

“It isn't the Nerd Herd's job to take care of Mokuba. Wheeler joined your tournament to help his sister, Yugi to save his grandfather. To them, their family came first. Aside from the fact that Mokuba was a child at the time your kidnapped him–still is, by the way–they had no reason to make an effort for him. We only had a history of being their enemies. They assumed I threatened to kill myself because I was afraid of losing a game. They never assumed Mokuba's life was on the line, right along with mine, even though saw your thug take Mokuba. Yugi would have been justified picking his family over mine.”

A flash of anger crossed Pegasus's expression, the narrowing of an eye and the downward tilt of a lip. It faded back into his typical calm soon enough. “You make it sound so clear cut. Wouldn't you do anything for your brother?”

“That's why I stood on a ledge willing to die for your game. But I don't put my faith in other people to take care of my problems. I messed up by leaving Mokuba and giving you the opportunity to take him. I should have just walked in with a gun and forced you to give him back. I should have just gone to the authorities and enlisted their help. I screwed up because I am an excessively proud person. You're trying to make Yugi seem like the villain in that story when you took a ten-year-old boy and tried to use him to destroy me.”

“What was the point of my tournament?” Pegasus asked. His words were so soft that Seto almost couldn't hear them over the speaker, and they didn't sound much like a question.

“You needed that necklace of Yugi's.”

“Why?”

Seto shook his head. “You wanted a complete set?” he said, giving a half-hearted gesture to his own eye.

“You've never thought to question why I went to such lengths? Why I needed your brother once you refused me?”

“You wanted my company.”

“I wanted SolidVision.”

Shifting on the bare mattress, Seto tried to think through what Pegasus was saying before he reached the final point. Like all the villains of Seto's life, they all just wanted something from him. He stopped giving it much consideration.

“SolidVision was all that was holding KaibaCorp up at the time. I had just taken over the company. I couldn't sell the rights to it.”

“So I did what I had to do,” Pegasus said. It was strange to hear his voice without all the frills of his normal dialogue, too serious for such an eccentric man.

“What are you saying?” Seto asked. He couldn't come up with a reason for the discussion no matter what direction he carried the conversation.

“I'm saying you don't know me as well as you seem to think you do.”

Seto shook his head, annoyed at how often he was having to do so to disguise the confusion he wasn't used to feeling. “Are you trying to convince me whatever you did during Duelist Kingdom should be forgiven because you had a reason for it?”

“Oh no. That would be asking you to overlook how I hurt your brother, which I'll admit to. I did hurt little Mokuba. But I want you to look me in the eye and tell me you would have done anything to save him then, and you would do anything to get him away from me now, even if it meant taking a life in the process.”

The mere idea of losing Mokuba made Seto sick. During all the times Mokuba had been missing, kidnapped, held hostage, Seto never let himself focus on what it would actually mean to have lost him. Mokuba was the fuel running Seto's life.

With their godparents, he had one job: take care of Mokuba because no one else would.

At the orphanage: protect Mokuba because no one else would.

With Gozaburo: provide a better life for Mokuba because no one else would.

Running KaibaCorp: make sure Mokuba had everything he could ever want, because no one else would give him anything.

Duelist Kingdom: rescue Mokuba because no one else would.

Their throw-back into the Gozaburo days: keep Mokuba from Noah because no one else would.

All of the instances flooded across Seto's mind, proving exactly how often Seto had to take care of Mokuba. Everything he did, even the boring tasks like sitting through business meetings, was so Mokuba could have the life he deserved.

“I would do anything for him,” Seto said.

“Then you agree. A life for a life can be justified.”

“I guess so.”

Pegasus pursed his lips and seemed to relax. His shoulders slumped and his head tilted to the side like he had deflated. Seto couldn't decide what to attribute it to, fatigue, relief, or maybe disappointment in Seto's answer.

“I thought that out of everyone here, you would be the most likely to agree.”

“They all have family.”

“Their family is not like your family. Should Mr. Wheeler have not gotten the prize money, I'm certain he would have returned home and given his sister a heartfelt apology. Yugi-boy would have surrendered his Puzzle to see to the safe return of his grandfather, but I think that would have been his limit. They are children, Kaiba-boy. You were never afforded the opportunity.”

“You're asking if I would do anything to help Mokuba, but insisting that I stop fighting you,” Seto said, making it sound like a statement rather than the burning question underlying it.

“You'll help Mokuba most by not fighting,” Pegasus said. The little smirk was back. “But that's not the point of all this.”

“Then what is?”

Pegasus checked his watch before standing.

“A subject for another day. I'll leave the light on for you tonight. You can let me know in the morning if you want to go back to having them out.”

Seto almost let a thanks slip out. Pegasus didn't say it was a reward for going along with the conversation, but he didn't have to. He must have appreciated Seto's new strategy as much as Seto hated it.

“Goodnight,” Pegasus said, taking the basket and used plate, and stepping out of sight.


	16. Chapter 16

Their conversations didn't drift back to the life for a life debate, but remained mostly in pleasantries for the next few weeks. It kept Seto from having to reveal anything too personal and gave Pegasus time to recover. And Seto could see that recovering what exactly what Pegasus needed. It took a full three weeks before he returned to his usual self, which gave Seto more information to ponder than their last real conversation had.

Talking about Duelist Kingdom had bothered Pegasus in a way it hadn't before. Whatever Pegasus had been trying to do during the tournament brought back bad memories that took three weeks to shake.

Seto wore thin cracks into the foam moon from tossing it so much, using it as a physical filler while his mind ran over everything. He must have overlooked something important and Pegasus was trying to lead Seto to it. It clearly traced back to Duelist Kingdom. The fact that he kidnapped the specific seven people proved that.

Seto caught the ball and held it. Devlin hadn't been at Duelist Kingdom. His presence was an issue Seto couldn't resolve. Even though he knew that Pegasus had worked with Devlin to create that dice game, it was an anomaly because Devlin couldn't be traced back to the tournament.

So the next time Pegasus came down and gave Seto his standard, “Good morning, Kaiba-boy,” Seto was ready to ask.

“Why Devlin?”

“Why what?”

“Why is he one of your seven?”

“You've already drawn the ties to the convention. Why not assume it was because he was there?” Pegasus asked, but his tone betrayed him. Seto was on the right track.

“Did you send out the tickets?”

“I did.”

Seto nodded. “You gave a ticket to Taylor, not Devlin.”

It was Pegasus's turn to nod, and he did so while sliding over Seto's breakfast. “They must have switched them on me.”

“But there were other people at Duelist Kingdom. Valentine, Howard, Underwood, why not bring any of them?”

“It had to be you lot,” Pegasus said, like it was the most obvious fact out there.

The others had only been there for the prize money, and with the exception of Wheeler, the same couldn't be said for the people Pegasus had kidnapped. Whatever had been his real motive for holding the tournament, it had to do with the six people he had meant to bring back.

“So why bring Devlin at all? If you wanted a particular seven people, why waste the last spot on someone who you didn't have the space for?”

“Sedatives don't take on everyone.”

So the sedative didn't take on Devlin, and that meant he was a witness. The rest of Seto's memories from that day never came back, but Seto had to assume that Devlin had been with the Friendship is Magic Gang whenever Pegasus, or Pegasus's goons, moved in.

“Why not go back for Taylor now?”

“It's like you said, seven people, seven days.”

Seto leaned back against the wall and rolled the foam ball between his hands. It had to be some kind of a revenge scheme; Seto couldn't come up with any other reason for Pegasus wanting that exact seven. They had thwarted whatever he had been trying to accomplish during the tournament, so he brought them back for revenge.

But that didn't explain why he wouldn't just try again.

“If I ask you something, will you answer me truthfully?” Seto said.

It got a smile from Pegasus. “I always do, Kaiba-boy.”

“Why buy KaibaCorp?”

“So you wouldn't worry about it.”

“But it's in your hands, so of course I'm worried about it.”

“You shouldn't be. After all, you're still making the major decisions for it.”

Seto put the ball on the side table, now much more interested in what Pegasus was saying. “How's that?”

“KaibaCorp is Company A.”

A beat of silence passed.

“You've been basing actual business decisions on my responses to hypothetical situations?” Seto said. He couldn't even find the energy to be upset because it was just so ridiculous. “You realize I could have been giving you false answers for the sake of it.”

“But you didn't, and KC is still putting out top-notch work and bringing in a profit. I'll let you come to work with me one day and show you.”

“You're insane,” Seto said, but it didn't sound like an insult even to him.

“Eccentric,” Pegasus corrected.

The absurdity of the situation had distracted Seto. KaibaCorp was the last thing on his mind aside from how it related to their situation. And while Seto had worked hard to build it up and make a name for himself apart from Gozaburo, he didn't care about Pegasus taking it nearly as much as he had initially, priorities and whatnot.

“So you have KaibaCorp and you have Yugi's necklace. Why not just do whatever it was you had been aiming toward three years ago?”

Seto's question triggered that sad smile of Pegasus's. He checked his watch and Seto knew that the five minutes were over.

“If only it were so easy. I've got to be off, Kaiba-boy. Thank you for the conversation.”

When Pegasus left that time, Seto picked up one of the Inheritance books Pegasus had brought down the week before, opening it without reading. He wanted the camera to show him reading rather than lying in bed contemplating everything Pegasus had said. He felt like he was putting together a puzzle but lacked the piece that connected all of the parts. And if Pegasus's tone was any indication, it was something Seto should already know.

Seto glanced up from the book to the painting Mokuba had done for him. He thought it was a justified action since the book had been one Mokuba requested. The conversation three weeks ago had been personal, but more about Seto opening up than Pegasus. And at the same time, there was that one statement.

_“You don't know me as well as you seem to think you do.”_

The day was spent thinking through the meanings of the statement. He hadn't come up with anything by the time Pegasus reappeared with dinner.

“Good afternoon, Kaiba-boy.”

“Am I supposed to be getting to know you?”

Pegasus raised the hand that wasn't holding the plate in a celebratory gesture. “Finally, after months of beating at a wall, my words break through.”

“But you're upset about what happened at Duelist Kingdom. Why would you want the people who stopped you from achieving your goal to befriend you?”

“Why indeed.”

Seto kept quiet while Pegasus switched the plates. It wasn't often that Seto asked a direct question and Pegasus refused to answer. If he wasn't answering, then Seto found the key question that encompassed their whole situation. He just didn't know how to get the answer out of Pegasus.

“Should I know the answer?” Seto asked.

“You're a smart cookie. You'll figure it out.”

Seto stood because he had been sitting all day. While Pegasus took his seat, Seto stretched out his stiff muscles. “You know this would be a lot easier if you would just tell me.”

“That's cheating.”

“As if you're above cheating.”

“Oh, but Kaiba-boy, I hold you to such a high standard. You'll get there one day.”

“What day is it?” Seto asked. If he let Pegasus stay on that particular train of thought, Seto would end up snapping and ruining his weeks of playing along. If Seto couldn't get that particular answer from Pegasus now, he would move on and come back around to it later.

“June 12th.”

“Less than a month until his birthday.”

“I've been meaning to ask, what cake does he prefer?”

“He'd rather have brownies and ice cream. Are you going to let me see him?”

“I think so. Yes.”

“Down here?”

Pegasus nodded. “He is about ready to move into the wing I prepared for the two of you. I may move him in on the same day.”

Seto started pacing. He was restless and somehow full of energy that he couldn't think of how to release. He didn't like Pegasus's gaze tracking his movements, but supposed he couldn't expect anything else. The camera always stared at him.

“And how far behind him am I?”

“Don't worry about it,” Pegasus said, which Seto took to mean far behind. “You'll join him soon enough.”

“That's easy to say that when you have free reign of your life.” Even to Seto, it sounded a bit harsher than he intended, so he decided to tone it down. “I'm not even asking for that.”

“I'm going to give you what you're asking for. If it helps, your timeline is moving faster than I had anticipated.”

It did help, but Seto wasn't going to admit to it. He walked the length of the room and then turned to do it again.

“You had initially said two years. Are you telling me it won't be that long?”

“I don't think so.”

“A year is still a long time,” Seto left off the rest–to be away from Mokuba.

“It may not even be that. Really, Kaiba-boy, you shouldn't worry about it. Everything is ready when you are.”

Seto stopped walking in front of Pegasus. He didn't think he could look too threatening behind the glass, so he settled for crossing his arms. Arguing on the subject had caused Pegasus to storm out the last time, and Seto had been doing well keeping his cool and making sure Pegasus did the same. He wouldn't risk messing that up, not with Mokuba's birthday just around the corner.

He couldn't even think of a decent subject change. His frustration expanded in him to the point Seto thought it was going to burst out, so he turned around and walked back to the bed before saying something he would regret. The only thing he could think to do to better his situation was ask questions about Pegasus's personal life, but he just didn't have it in him.

He had never been very good at feigning consideration.

“You're angry with me,” Pegasus said.

“No more than usual.”

“Do you want to tell me why you're mad?”

Seto almost laughed at the use of the word “want,” but thought better of it. Any laugh he let out now would sound too sarcastic, and Seto was aiming for exhaustion. He wanted Pegasus to think he was giving up, giving in, surrendering.

“Not particularly.”

“Let me take a guess then. I'm quite good at reading people, you know.”

“I thought you needed two eyes for that,” Seto said, but made sure his tone didn't have any sort of edge.

“We'll call it years of practice. I think you're mad I didn't answer your question, conjugated with built up resentment from being in this room for so long.”

Seto scooted back so he could lean on the headboard, tucking his feet under the blanket. “If you want me to understand your side so badly, then you could try explaining it to me.”

“But I already have.”

Seto rolled his eyes. “You've hinted and edged around it. You expect me to be upfront. I don't see why it is so ridiculous for me to expect the same.”

“Because I make the rules and you go along with them. Honestly, it's like you have never played games of my creation before.”

“You said this wasn't a game.”

“It's not. Just making a point.”

“Don't you get tired of this?” Seto asked. He didn't even have the energy to make the gesture to the room. “You come down here twenty minutes a day to argue. It has to be exhausting.”

Seto wanted Pegasus to admit that it was, because Seto was exhausted and at least then they would be in the same boat. It would be too frustrating if Pegasus walked away happy while Seto wasted away in his basement. Seto might not be able to escape, but he could ensure Pegasus was equally miserable.

“Yes. I'm quite tired of this.”

“Then why continue?”

“I'm willing to wait for it to get better.”

“And that makes it easier?”

“Well of course it does,” Pegasus said, sounding much more convinced than he had before. “Come on, Kaiba-boy, you can admit that the thought of seeing little Mokuba again is a light at the end of this tunnel.”

Seto closed his eyes as if that would stave off the rushing sensation of hatred pooling up at the thought of Pegasus knowing Mokuba well enough to have that opinion. Seto had meant what he said back all those weeks ago; Pegasus didn't deserve Mokuba.

“Let's not talk about him,” Seto said.

“You sure? You're usually so interested—”

“I'm sure.”

“I know this is hard—” Pegasus started, but Seto shook his head to end the sentence.

“Tell me about KaibaCorp,” Seto said, picking the first subject that came to mind unrelated to Mokuba or Seto's current helplessness. It still wasn't the best choice of subject, but possibly a step above the weather. At least Seto could comment on KaibaCorp.

“Like I said earlier, it's doing well. We've recovered from the initial transfer problems and are back to smooth sailing. Sure, the products aren't as inventive. For not designing the games, you certainly had a lot of impact on the final product.”

“Aren't you overseeing all the products?” Seto said, although he didn't think Pegasus would be nearly as talented at running Seto's company. There was a reason Seto brought KaibaCorp to the top of the gaming community. It wasn't the name that did all the work.

“There's so little time in the day to be CEO of both our businesses. I'm doing as well as I can.”

“And you're not using SolidVision?” Seto asked. Pegasus had wanted it so badly before that Seto couldn't believe that desire had just vanished, no matter how much time had gone by.

“Only for its intended purpose. I2 released a new line up of cards, so those are being rendered with it now. But don't you just find shop talk so dull?”

“Of course not. We're discussing something I created.”

Seto started tossing the foam ball again, this time throwing it against the wall by his bed so when it fell, it wouldn't roll away from him. If Pegasus didn't want to discuss business, then that just left personal subjects. That required so much effort, scrutinizing every detail he said to keep Pegasus from knowing too much.

“Why do you like chess?” Pegasus asked.

“Why do I like your card game? It's a challenge involving strategy and outsmarting an opponent.”

“Oh please,” Pegasus said, giving his words a bright flourish. “You like my game because it makes you feel like a fantasy warrior, commanding dragons to do your bidding.”

Seto laughed, unable to stop himself. “You forget that I started playing while it was still just a tabletop game and before I had the Blue-Eyes. It's hard to be a warrior with paper monsters.”

“I'd bet the whole reason you came up with the SolidVision part of it was just to allow yourself to be dramatic. Don't think I didn't watch your duels later on. Those billowing coats, the shouting of the cards, the way you slammed them down onto your duel disk like it made the cards more powerful. Be truthful, you enjoyed acting like the monsters were real.”

“If you asked Muto, he would probably tell you they were.”

“You know, he once believed they couldn't be real. I'm sure his views have changed since then.”

And then Seto realized that they were casually discussing duel monsters like they had all those years ago when Seto was fifteen and had approached Pegasus with the idea of combining Seto's technology with Pegasus's game. It was too casual for their situation, even for the act Seto was putting on.

Seto tossed the ball again and watched it fall flatly against the bed. He let his concentration slip and momentarily forgot himself. With a deep breath, Seto promised himself that it wouldn't happen again.

“Are you going to leave the lights on again?” Seto asked.

“I'm planning on it.”

Seto nodded and tossed the ball. They already had too long of a conversation for one visit and Seto didn't want Pegasus thinking that he was faking this new level of comradery. Even though the conversation had been short and an accident, Pegasus had to assume that Seto wouldn't slip up so thoughtlessly. He might misinterpret Seto's mistake as being intentional, assume it was an act, and no longer believe Seto was putting in genuine effort.

“Does this mean you're done talking to me tonight?”

“It does.”

“All right then,” Pegasus said. He got to his feet and made a show of adjusting the chair, although it was already against the wall. “I'll be on my way. Goodnight, Kaiba-boy.”

The speaker fell silent, leaving just the quiet music playing through the holes in the glass. Seto sat back against the wall and tossed the ball a few inches in the air so it would fall right back in his palm. That hadn't gone how he had expected it to.


	17. Chapter 17

He had counted the days and knew that it was Mokuba's birthday. Seto double-checked when Pegasus brought breakfast without Mokuba in sight.

“I'll bring him for dinner, Kaiba-boy. And if you're good, I'll combine your time and his.”

That left Seto to wait for the rest of the day. He made his bed and picked up the books stacked on his side table, only to put them all back where they had been because it was ridiculous to be cleaning up his space. Mokuba wouldn't give a slight mess any attention, but waiting made Seto restless. It had taken him weeks to get used to the idea of the glass wall, so he didn't know how Mokuba would interpret it.

Seto shaved, showered, and then tried to read. His fingers tapped idly at the fanned pages of the book, but the words refused to stay in focus. He shouldn't have been so anxious about seeing Mokuba. Mokuba was fine and Pegasus hadn't hurt him. Mokuba was safe, and possibly getting moved to a nicer room.

Seto didn't want Mokuba to see this fishbowl. It was bad enough having to let Mokuba see him strapped to the bed upstairs, and this somehow seemed worse.

The day slugged by to the point Seto started to believe Pegasus decided against bringing Mokuba down and to forgo dinner entirely. Seto paced for lack of anything better to do, keeping his gaze on the glass all the while.

But by the point Seto considered waving at the camera, Pegasus came into sight, a hand over Mokuba's eyes like back in the infirmary. The other hand gripped the handles of a picnic basket.

Seto stepped up to the glass, unable to be heard without the intercom. Mokuba's lips tilted in confusion, and Seto guessed it was either from Pegasus stopping without moving his hand or the music playing.

Pegasus gave Seto an irritating grin and drew back his hand. Mokuba blinked a few times, and then the confusion spread up his face to his eyes. His forehead wrinkled–his hair pulled back like it had been in the first video–and he reached out to rest a hand on the glass. His lips formed the word “Seto?” in an obvious question that Seto couldn't hear.

Seto waited for Pegasus to turn on the speaker. For a moment, Seto thought Pegasus cruel enough to allow them to see each other, but not actually talk to each other. It would have been in character for him to force the play on words.

Dropping the basket, Pegasus lifted his hands and said something unheard but looked a lot like “Oh, fine” before stepping over to turn on the speaker.

The moment it came on, Mokuba said, “This is insane.”

“Eccentric, little—”

“No, just straight up insane. This is where you've been keeping him?”

Pegasus leaned forward so that he was at eye level with Mokuba, using a finger to poke Mokuba's nose. “Be nice.”

“Happy birthday,” Seto said. He looked up and down at his brother, trying to see if Mokuba had grown in the months since Seto had really gotten the chance to see him. He knew that it wasn't probable, but something about Mokuba's face seemed much older.

“Thanks,” Mokuba said, taking a step back from Pegasus. “Are you okay?”

“No more organs threatening to rupture. You're good?”

Mokuba nodded. Then he peered to either side of Seto, frowned, and turned to look behind Pegasus where the painting hung on the wall. “I told you I was.”

“I know.”

At that, Pegasus glanced back to see what Mokuba had been referring to, then said, “Did you paint some hidden message in that?”

Shrugging, Mokuba kept searching the area around them. He looked to either side, then back around Seto, and finally stepped back to get the full view of the glass wall. He stretched an arm to run his fingers over it again before kneeling down in front of the hatch.

Seto did the same, and when Mokuba opened it, Seto reached through to grab his hand. Mokuba squeezed back and Seto never hated the glass more than he did at that moment.

“You two are cute.” Pegasus sat on the floor beside Mokuba and lifted the basket's lid. “Almost makes me wish I had a brother.”

Mokuba scooted a couple inches to the side, keeping his hand in Seto's. Mokuba's hand shook, and if not for that, Seto would have let go. Even if Pegasus understood how much Mokuba meant to Seto, he didn't need to be witness to it.

“So,” Pegasus said when neither spoke. “I brought dinner and dessert. And not a peanut in sight, little Mokuba.”

“Cause that'd be a crummy birthday present,” Mokuba said. He pressed his lips together and slipped his hand from Seto's, followed by the hatch door swinging closed. Mokuba flinched as it resounded with a sharp clack, but Pegasus pleasantly ignored it.

“If you two aren't going to be chatty, I might as well take this party elsewhere.”

“Your room sucks,” Mokuba said.

Seto smirked and leaned back on his hands. “How's yours?”

“Um, I'm moving after this?” Mokuba said, glancing at Pegasus for the confirming nod. “So when we head back up, I'll be going to the wing you and I will be sharing. He promised we'd end up sharing.”

Nodding, Seto said, “He'd mentioned.”

“But he said you can't come now.”

“He'd mentioned that as well.”

“Honestly, you two. It's his birthday. Can't we keep to a lighter conversation?”

“Did you see that rain storm yesterday? Oh wait,” Mokuba said, giving Pegasus mean side glance.

“You're not as clever as your brother,” Pegasus said. He brought a plate out of the basket, loaded up with little sandwiches. Plastic wrap covered it, but Pegasus left it while he reached back in for a container of vegetables. Three water bottles came out next.

“Maybe if we got to spend more time together, I'd be more clever.”

Pegasus chuckled politely and lifted the hatch to give Seto one of the bottles. Seto popped the cap but didn't take a sip, setting it aside instead.

“Here's a question. Have you played chess with your brother?” Pegasus asked while looking at Mokuba.

“Well yeah.”

“So, Kaiba-boy? Is little Mokuba any good?”

“Better than you.”

Pegasus's eye brightened. “We'll have to see about that. I've gotten much better.”

“You guys are playing chess?” Mokuba asked. He took the water bottle as Pegasus offered it and dropped it in his lap. Then he moved it aside so he could cross his legs under him, probably as uncomfortable as Seto on the concrete floor.

“Your brother enjoys seeing me lose at something,” Pegasus said.

“And often,” Seto added.

Pegasus took the plastic off the sandwich plate and Mokuba didn't hesitate before reaching for two of them, although he lifted the hatch to pass them through to Seto rather than keep them for himself. They didn't have any plates, so Seto set one of the two sandwiches on his knee.

“What do you do all day?” Mokuba asked.

“Read mostly. I'm learning French.”

Mokuba glanced at Pegasus, almost amused, before distracting himself by grabbing a carrot stick. “Why French?”

“It is a beautiful language!” Pegasus said in French, speaking as if mesmerized by a flower. Mokuba gave Seto a confused look.

“He thinks it's a beautiful language,” Seto said.

“Ah, and you really are learning,” Pegasus said. “We should start conversing in French, so you can practice.”

Mokuba gave a pointed stare at the vegetables, then looked up to Seto with eyebrows raised. Seto nodded, so Mokuba grabbed a handful of carrots and celery and passed them through.

“What do you do with your time?” Seto asked. He started to eat for Mokuba's sake, because not eating might trigger an unwanted conversation.

“I read a lot too. Paint, of course,” he said with a glance back at the picture on the wall. “I've gotten really good at making card castles.”

That bit of information meant that Pegasus had taken Seto's advice and given Mokuba exactly what Seto had suggested. It was almost annoying, but because it made Mokuba's life easier, Seto let himself be relieved instead.

But the thought of cards brought up a question Seto hadn't thought to ask. He glanced at Pegasus and thought through the possible ways to form his question without telling Mokuba what was really being discussed. Pegasus clearly had some master scheme and tipping off Mokuba could end the birthday dinner.

“That conversation you and I had about who I might chat with, do you remember it?”

Pegasus frowned, slight and fleeting. “I do.”

“Have you had that conversation more than once?”

It wasn't exactly what Seto meant, but he figured Pegasus would catch on.

“Not in the way you are alluding to,” Pegasus said.

Mokuba didn't know about the others being there. It could have been why Pegasus kept Mokuba's eyes covered when he brought Mokuba to see Seto both times. Maybe the others were somewhere along the way or there was some clue that would let the information slip.

Pegasus hadn't told Seto about the others until Seto had asked. Mokuba might not have asked.

“Is there a reason you two are taking in code?” Mokuba said. He took a bite out of his carrot stick, the crunch loud enough for the intercom to pick up.

“Your brother is being nosy, little Mokuba. That's all.”

“I'm fourteen. I'm not really little.”

“When you get to be my age, practically everyone seems little,” Pegasus said.

“Twenty-eight?” Seto said.

“Twenty-seven, Kaiba-boy. You're practically trying to throw me into an early grave.”

Seto raised his eyebrows and let the subject slide. He was more distracted by how he knew how old Pegasus was, even if he had been off by a year. It must have been knowledge from somewhere back when they had been business partners.

“I thought you said your birthday was close to Seto's,” Mokuba said.

“Traitor!” Pegasus said, giving Mokuba's shoulder a little shove that didn't even push Mokuba off-balance. But Pegasus's expression read as light-hearted, like he was thrilled Mokuba remembered that fact.

“So basically twenty-eight,” Seto said.

“I'm no more twenty-eight than you are twenty, Kaiba-boy. I will bask in my youth while I'm able.”

Seto took a sip from his water bottle rather than answer. He tried to make a list of things he wanted to ask Mokuba, of things he needed to hear from Mokuba to make sure that his brother was really okay. Pegasus could only confirm Mokuba's physical well-being, but his mental state might be entirely different. Seto knew firsthand how long Mokuba's nightmares lasted after Duelist Kingdom.

“Are you excited—” not the right word, but the closest Seto could think of, “—to move rooms?”

“Not without you.”

“It'll be better,” Seto said. He had seen the video and some pictures of Mokuba's current room, and if the wing Pegasus had described was accurate, Mokuba wouldn't be as bored and maybe wouldn't feel so trapped.

“The whole point of getting to move was to end up living with you again. I'd rather move down here.”

“You don't mean that.”

Mokuba huffed. “Of course I do. If I could fit through this opening, I would have crawled through already.”

Pegasus was being too quiet. Gathering insight into his captives, Seto supposed. He wasn't even watching them as they spoke, but kept his eyes on the sandwich in his hand.

“This room is ridiculous,” Seto said, as if that was a decent reason for Mokuba to want to stay away.

“Yeah, the glass is weird and probably annoying. But you're behind the glass. I'm so tired of being alone. You promised me, Seto.”

“Mokuba, I'm—” Seto stopped because he didn't want to say anything too honest with Pegasus observing so obviously. Pegasus still kept his gaze from either of them, and Seto took that to mean he was listening but trying to let them have their own discussion.

“I'm trying,” Seto said.

“If it helps,” Pegasus said, gaze distant and vague, “I also believe he is trying.”

“Then why won't you let him stay with me? Seto's all I have, and you know—”

“Mokuba, enough,” Pegasus said. He kept his voice quiet, quiet enough that Seto relied mostly on lip reading to understand what had been said. But no matter how softly Pegasus spoke, he was still reprimanding Mokuba, which he had no right to do.

Seto reached his hand back through the hatch, and Mokuba took it immediately. His hands weren't shaking anymore, but he squeezed harder than he had the first time. Mokuba slipped his fingers around Seto's even though the angle proved challenging. He had sounded almost mad at Seto before, but Seto now understood what he meant.

“Had you gotten me a birthday present?” Mokuba asked.

“Your birthday was a long way away, kid.”

Mokuba's smile didn't reach happy. “But did you?”

“I booked us airspace to fly over to Japan. Thought it was about time you saw Miyagi.”

“Thanks.”

“You two are the most depressing set of brothers I've ever seen. Honestly, we're trying to celebrate here. If I have to go get my box of birthday paraphernalia to liven things up, I will.”

Mokuba pressed his lips together before looking at Pegasus. Seto couldn't imagine Pegasus being unable to see how close Mokuba was to breaking. He kept up a brave front, but it wouldn't last much longer.

“If it's my birthday, shouldn't I be allowed to discuss whatever I want?” Mokuba said, voice even and low. It almost didn't resemble a question because he didn't raise his tone the needed pitch at the end.

“But wouldn't you rather keep to happy subjects?” Pegasus asked.

“And what do you suggest?” Mokuba said.

Pegasus looked to Seto like he would get any assistance. Although Seto did want Mokuba to enjoy his birthday, Seto understood their situation better than Pegasus. Mokuba couldn't be happy, not like this.

Instead of answering, Seto gave Mokuba's hand another squeeze, which Mokuba seemed to take as a sign to pull away again. Mokuba took a small bite from his sandwich, then turned away from them right as Seto saw tears building.

For Mokuba's benefit, Seto started a conversation with Pegasus.

“What have you been doing with Mokuba's paintings?”

“They are all hanging up in your wing. It gives the space a nice, personal touch.”

“I want that one moved up whenever I am,” Seto said, giving a slight nod toward the painting on the wall. He never expected Pegasus to leave it behind, but Seto needed something to talk about. Pegasus caught on.

“Oh yes. I'll leave a space open in your room for it. I hope that you don't mind, but I thought I'd let Mokuba decorate for you.”

“He'll do better than I would.”

Mokuba managed to turn back around with a dry face, although his eyes were red. Seto took a sip from his water bottle while Pegasus sent little flickering glances at Mokuba, constantly checking if he was all right.

But Mokuba wasn't all right, and there wasn't a damned thing Seto could do about it.

“I would have thought you decorated,” Seto said. The subject was easier than any other suggestions coming to mind and until Mokuba started talking again, Seto had to keep the attention as much away from his brother as he could manage.

“Oh Kaiba-boy,” Pegasus said, his voice low and thick. “You would not want that.”

It got a laugh from Seto. “I never said I did, only that I would have expected it.”

Mokuba looked up when Seto laughed. Seto had hoped that his laughter, as quiet as his laughs ever were, would convey two things to his brother although the messages were convoluted, even to someone who knew Seto as well as Mokuba.

The first was that it was okay if Mokuba wanted to get along with Pegasus. A single, short laugh couldn't really say that, but the idea was there. If Seto, who rarely laughed, was willing to in front of the man who had kidnapped them twice, then Mokuba could do the same. It was different for Seto, of course. Seto had been partners with Pegasus back before Duelist Kingdom. They had worked together to create the dueling platforms and bring tabletop gaming to a more marketable level, making a sport of it. As much as Seto tried to forget that in favor of the ever-present grudge that was Duelist Kingdom, he and Pegasus had a history.

Mokuba just had the dungeon.

The second point was more of a reinforcement. Seto was trying to get along with Pegasus for Mokuba. The only way to show Mokuba that he was actually trying to get out of the room was to get along with Pegasus, and having seen how upset Mokuba was, Seto's new strategy still wasn't moving fast enough.

“Well, little Mokuba? Any ideas about how you might end up embellishing your brother's space?”

Seto hadn't wanted to bring Mokuba back into the conversation, but Mokuba widened his eyes–a tactic he had learned back at the orphanage to keep from crying–and said, “Nothing red. No flowers. Minimalist.”

“Nothing red?” Pegasus asked, attention on Seto.

“It's not my color of choice,” Seto said.

“You told me you didn't have a favorite color.”

“You didn't ask for a least favorite.”

The finished eating their dinner, which normally would have marked the time Pegasus left. But as he made no indications that he was going to get up, Seto took it to mean that Pegasus decided to combine their two times. Half an hour wasn't nearly enough.

Pegasus collected the empty dishes and put them back inside the basket, only to bring out a small cooler, as well as another plastic-covered plate.

“I hear ice cream and brownies are your favorite,” Pegasus said. Little paper bowls followed along with plastic spoons. Pegasus didn't wait for Mokuba to answer before spooning out a serving for each of them.

“Did you do anything else today?” Seto asked.

Guilt flooded over Mokuba's expression, and if Seto had known his question would draw that response, he wouldn't have asked it.

“I went outside. To the ocean.”

Guilt shouldn't have been the emotion Mokuba matched to what was probably his first day outside in months. It wasn't like Seto even liked spending time outdoors. Thinking back on it, Mokuba never did either.

“How is island weather in July?” Seto asked.

Pegasus lifted the hatch to give Seto his bowl.

“Not as hot as I expected. But I guess you would know all the climatology reasons for that, huh?”

“I doubt you want a science lesson.”

“Do you assume that the all-powerful Seto knows everything?” Pegasus asked. His words dripped with playfulness to such an extent that even Mokuba smirked.

“Seto does know everything.”

“I highly doubt—”

“Try it,” Mokuba said. He took the bowl Pegasus offered and stuck the spoon straight down through the brownie before bringing it back out to lick off the melted ice cream. “You can't ask a question that he can't answer.”

“I accept the challenge,” Pegasus said. He set his own bowl in front of him and stared up at the ceiling, deep in thought.

“Twenty-seventh president?”

“William Howard Taft,” Seto answered, not missing a beat.

“The nineteen element on the periodic chart?”

Seto scoffed. “Potassium.”

“Where were the Olympics held in 1912?”

“Stockholm, Sweden.”

“Why do we only see one side of the moon?”

“Synchronous rotation.”

Pegasus looked back down and held up his hands in surrender. “Your brother is a walking trivia answer key. How do you have all that information so easily accessible?”

“Eidetic memory, years of study, paying attention. Take your pick.”

Seto dared a bite of the dessert, although he never really had much of a sweet tooth. Mokuba did, so Seto always tried to eat whatever concoction Mokuba chose for his birthday, and Seto was relieved that there was no icing involved this time.

He also realized that it was the first sweets Pegasus had brought down since Seto's arrival. Everything else, aside from the occasional bag of chips or protein bars, had all be on the healthy side of the food spectrum. Seto hadn't given it much thought.

“So Kaiba-boy, what can't you do?”

Get out of this room.

“Plenty of things. Just nothing relevant to my life,” or rather, Seto supposed, the life he had been building for himself and Mokuba. There were plenty of things Seto couldn't do in this life, which he still couldn't accept as being final.

“You know what I would like to see some day?” Pegasus said. He paused to take a bite of ice cream before finishing his thought. “I'd like to see you two play chess. Mokuba, your brother is an infinitely dreadful winner, so I'd like to see how he might win graciously.”

“You'd get bored of it,” Mokuba said. “It's a teaching moment.”

“Ah, I can see the image now. 'No, my darling Mokuba. You should have moved your bishop to C3. Let's upright your king and try again.'”

“I don't think I have ever used the word 'darling' before,” Seto said, taking another small bite. But Mokuba was nearly done with his own dessert, so rather than check to see if Pegasus would give Mokuba more, Seto slid his own bowl through the hatch.

Mokuba accepted it without question.

“Your vocabulary is astonishingly bland,” Pegasus said. “English is such a great language full of marvelous words that make for quite the turn of phrase. You shouldn't be so restrictive.”

“I think we've had this conversation before.”

“It's a very poignant subject for me. After all, what hardships you must have faced having only to use 'sad' in place of 'distraught' or 'bitterly agonized' for your entire life.”

Mokuba's lips twitched around his spoon.

“I can't recall having used the word 'sad' either.”

Pegasus put down his own bowl. “But certainly you've been sad before, Kaiba-boy.”

“I wouldn't verbalize it.”

“I've certainly heard you complaining enough about being down here.”

“That's complaining, not bemoaning my existence.”

“Bemoaning. Now that's a good one.”

Seto turned back to Mokuba because it was his birthday, and as much as Pegasus wanted to be involved in the conversation, Seto only got to see Mokuba about once every two months. He wished now that he could talk to Mokuba, he had something worthwhile to say.

“He isn't giving you junk like this all the time, is he?” was the best Seto could think of.

“Nope,” Mokuba said, running his spoon along the bottom of the bowl to scoop all the melted ice cream. “Just this once.”

“And you always complained about me tossing out the junk.”

“Yeah, Seto. I really doubt I'll ever complain about you again.”

It should have been sarcastic. Seto knew Mokuba well enough that he practically heard the statement as it should have been said. Mokuba couldn't take his gaze off the bowl as he finished with it, setting it in front of him and flicking the spoon a few times. While Mokuba was distracted, Seto looked over at Pegasus and mouthed, “Five minutes.”

Pegasus shook his head, but a pointed look at Mokuba made him reconsider.

“All right, little Mokuba. I think I've tagged along quite enough. I'll be right down the hall, so don't try anything.”

“Turn off the speaker,” Seto said.

Seto didn't know what his voice sounded like on the other side of the glass, but if it was anything like Pegasus's, Pegasus would be able to hear anything said. They could use the hatch for some semblance of privacy.

“Only because it's a special day,” Pegasus said. He bent over until Mokuba glanced up at him. “Last present. Don't touch the buttons.”

And Mokuba did his show of parting his lips and flashing his wide eyes, which he used to pull all the time until Seto caught on to it. Pegasus didn't seem to understand the blatant lie on Mokuba's face. If it manipulated Pegasus, then Seto wouldn't stop Mokuba.

Pegasus left the basket and the plates where they were and headed back down the hall to where Seto couldn't see him. He watched Mokuba instead, reading Mokuba's face to judge how much space Pegasus gave them. A little frown, so Seto assumed it wasn't as much as Mokuba would have liked.

At least the speaker was off.

Mokuba scooted up to the glass and lifted the hatch, sitting close enough that a raised knee kept it up.

“Are you really okay in here?” Mokuba asked.

“I'm fine, Mokuba. Bored, restless, losing muscle mass, but otherwise fine. What about you?”

He shrugged, shoulders going up to his ears. “He keeps saying that he wants me to trust him, but I don't. And I don't know what he wants from us. They always tell us what they want.”

The fact that Mokuba had enough references to have any sort of “always” regarding being kidnapped angered Seto. If there was anyone in the world who didn't deserve what Pegasus was doing, it was Mokuba.

“I'll figure it out,” Seto said. “Don't fight him on anything. It's not worth it, not yet.”

“Are you fighting?”

“You know kid, I can't be sure anymore. It feels like everything I've done has only furthered his goals, whatever they are.”

Mokuba turned to look in the direction Pegasus had gone in. From the low volume of Mokuba's voice, Seto assumed that whispering would keep Pegasus from overhearing them, but they couldn't prove it. Mokuba tried to mask the glance with a stretch, but knowing Pegasus, it wouldn't have worked.

“Can't you hold off on fighting until you're upstairs with me?”

Seto took a sip of his water because the expression currently on Mokuba's face was much more genuine than the one he had shown Pegasus. It was as close as Mokuba ever came to begging, silent and nearing tears. Mokuba could never hold eye contact for more than a few seconds when he was about to cry, so he kept having to glance away to collect himself.

“Even if—”

“I'm scared, Seto. Like, more scared than I've been any other time. I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing or how I should act. I can't keep pretending that I'm okay. I need you to help me because I don't know how.”

“I can't force him to trust me. I'm trying.”

“Are you? I'm getting moved. It's clearly been enough time for him to trust me.”

Seto reached through the hatch for Mokuba's hand. They didn't hold hands as much as Seto draped his fingers over Mokuba's, but Mokuba did keep a loose grip on Seto's thumb.

“He's more inclined to trust you. He wants to believe he can trust you because you're a kid.”

“You guys were friends before all this. Can't you pretend?”

Seto tried to give Mokuba a convincing smile and didn't comment on the fact that they had never really be friends. “Trust me. I'm doing everything I can.”

“I'm so tired of this. And I know that even when you get upstairs, it isn't going to magically fix everything. I get that he's not going to let us sneak away or do anything to get ourselves home. Whatever. I'm tired of being alone all the time. And every time he looks at me I think his eye is going to start glowing and I'll be gone again. I'm not strong enough for this.”

“Look at me. Hey.”

Seto leaned forward to make sure that he had Mokuba's attention. When Mokuba wouldn't stay focused on Seto, Seto gave his hand a tug until Mokuba's gaze met with Seto's and stayed there.

“This might end up being something more twisted than we can imagine, but he is not going to hurt you. Okay? If he wanted to hurt us, we'd be down in those dungeons or actually hurt already. Go ahead and trust that we are here for friendship. You're obviously doing a better job with that.”

“I want to go home.”

Seto nodded. “Do your best. And think, whenever I do get up there, you won't have to constantly harass me about leaving work or all those other boring things I had to do. You're going to have more time with me than you know what to do with.”

“You'll find something to work on.”

“I'm sorry I can't be there for you right now.”

Tears formed around Mokuba's eyes and he had to pull his hand away from Seto to rub at them. “I never cry this much,” he said. “It's just being here—”

“I know.”

Pegasus walked back into Seto's view, stopping by the button to turn the speaker back on. Once it crackled again, Pegasus recruited Mokuba's help to pick up the remains of their meal. Mokuba's movements were slow, probably because packing up preluded leaving.

“All right, Kaiba brothers. I've got to get little Mokuba up to his new room.”

Still on his knees in the hallway, Mokuba turned like he was waiting for Seto to break down the glass and whisk him away. All Seto could do was stand, indicating that Mokuba should as well. They couldn't even say goodbye, not really, not with a wall between them.

“When will you let me see him again?” Mokuba asked.

“Oh, I don't know. His birthday?”

“That's almost four months,” Seto said.

Pegasus squared on Seto and lifted his chin. “I don't have to let you two see each other at all.”

The number of arguments to that statement was overwhelming, and Seto clenched his teeth to keep the arguments back. The last thing Mokuba needed to see was Seto fighting when he had just begged Seto to stop. It would have to wait until Seto was alone with Pegasus, when Mokuba was gone and out of Seto's reach for another few months.

“Happy birthday,” Seto said again.

Mokuba pressed his hand against the glass and didn't move until he received a gentle nudge from Pegasus. The hand fell off the glass and Pegasus led Mokuba out of sight, eyes covered.


	18. Chapter 18

The speaker had been left on. After getting back from the infirmary, the light stayed on nearly every night, but never the speaker. Seto might have attributed it to Pegasus having his hands full, one hand covering Mokuba's eyes and the other holding the basket, but it didn't seem like him to make the mistake.

Seto waited. Pegasus would be coming back after dropping off Mokuba and maybe checking on Bakura since his slot was between Seto and Mokuba. Pegasus might have moved it later to make up for the half hour he spent with Seto. Although, it could have come before, which would have explained why Seto thought Pegasus took too long in getting down for dinner.

He squeezed the stress ball instead of throwing it, keeping his eyes on the glass and listening for any sign of Pegasus's return.

When he did, Seto spoke first.

“You can't leave him alone this much.”

Pegasus nodded and moved to the hatch, holding two wine glasses and a bottle. “Have a drink with me,” he said.

“I'm nineteen.”

“And I'm the law here. I hereby decree that you can have a single glass of wine.”

Seto set down the ball and followed Pegasus's instructions, hating that Pegasus sat in the same place Mokuba had. The hatch wasn't locked, so Pegasus asked Seto to hold it open while he poured their drinks.

“Did Mokuba like the new room?”

Pegasus inclined his head and passed Seto's drink through. The wine glass was almost too tall to fit, clearing the top by millimeters. Seto accepted it but didn't take a sip. Although he was nineteen, he had plenty of experience with drinking. He didn't care for wine.

“Why does it make things worse to let you two see each other?”

“A reminder of what we're missing?” Seto said, swirling the deep red wine around in the glass instead of taking a sip.

“You knew that when you asked to see him. It's not like there’s any secret about what is going on here.”

Except for the secret of what was going on here.

Pegasus had already downed half of a glass and refilled what he had emptied. He kept glancing at Seto's like he was going to ask for it, so Seto took his first sip to ensure that Pegasus wouldn't.

“Even so, you're reminding a fourteen-year-old you kidnapped his father.”

“You keep calling yourself a father,” Pegasus said, taking another long gulp, which was an image Seto didn't know how to process; Pegasus couldn't have been the type to chug wine. “Did you ever consider adopting?”

“Again, I'm nineteen.”

“You haven't used your age as an excuse before. Heaven's sake, you claimed your father's company at fifteen.”

“I don't take the lives of children lightly,” Seto said.

Pegasus frowned and topped off his glass.

“Cecelia and I were going to adopt. She had this condition, well, I guess it doesn't matter now. There will be no adopting for me,” Pegasus said, raising his glass and holding it toward Seto. He tilted his head and his hair fell away from his face, revealing the part that had been hidden from Seto for all the months before.

The eyelid was down, but it didn't jut out like there was anything behind it, nothing to hold it up.

“Too damaged to fit in an artificial eye?” Seto asked.

“There's no point in replacing it with something artificial.”

Pegasus corrected his posture so his eye was covered again. Seto couldn't help but be relieved to have it hidden once more. It might have looked like his eye was closed from a distance or in a passing moment's glance, but not after extended examination.

“Do you always drink after visiting us?”

“Oh no, only on the special occasions. Drinking shouldn't be a dirty habit. I prefer enjoying myself while enjoying a glass of wine.”

Another sip to stall for time and Seto decided to wait for Pegasus to get to the point of the conversation. The first question had been about making things with Seto and Mokuba worse, so maybe that prompted the wine. It was the switch over to adoption that threw Seto off and made him want to allow Pegasus to lead any discussion. Seto might have triggered the subject with the father comment, but for Pegasus to have asked, it must have been a previous thought.

“Isn't it ironic that the orphans get to keep their family while everyone else loses theirs?”

For the ease of conversation, Seto decided to attribute “everyone” to those on the island. “If family is so important to you, maybe you shouldn't have taken them away from theirs.”

“Because everyone has someone, right?” And he paused to take another sip before pouring the rest of the bottle into his glass, shaking it out so every last drop fell. “Look at you, defender of the helpless, arguing with me to get those children back home to their families. Do you think they would appreciate you if you did? You could give them anything and everything they needed, and they would still hate you. Don't you get that?”

“I wouldn't have thought you were a light-weight.”

“It will take more than three glasses to get me drunk, brave Seto. I'm simply being honest. You're so desperate for me to give on anything that you're willing to argue for a group of people who don't even like you. You want Mr. Wheeler to get back to his sister and Yugi-boy back to his mother and grandfather. What if I decided to do that? You're arguing for them so much that you should be relieved to see them go. Right?” Another sip. “So relieved that you want to stay here. You, me, and little Mokuba. Is that what you're asking me for?”

“You're drunk.”

“And you're deflecting. Don't mistake me. No one is leaving, but that just means that my Kaiba brothers are the only family out here. The two orphans get the family. That seems fitting so far as my life has gone.”

Seto didn't know what made it click in that moment. It wasn't even a full click so much as a faint inkling of a notion. For a moment, he thought that he understood what Pegasus was getting at, what he had been trying to convey this whole time.

Asking while Pegasus was intoxicated could lead to a number of terrible outcomes, but Seto had to know. Maybe Pegasus would get angry, but he would come back in the morning regardless.

“What do we have to do with your wife?”

Pegasus's eye brightened and he lifted his wine glass to Seto again. “Great Scott, I think he's catching on.”

“Seeing as how I lack understanding about all of this, I'd like you to explain it to me.”

Pretending to sputter in shock, Pegasus set down his glass and leaned forward. “What? The mighty Seto Kaiba, formerly known as Seto Tomura, also formerly known as little prince, is admitting to a lack of understanding? I should run outside. The sky might be collapsing upon us.”

“You said that she had died before we met.”

“She did,” Pegasus said, finishing off his glass and frowning at it. “My wife is dead.”

Seto prepared his next question, but Pegasus went on. “And you two, closest set of brothers I've ever seen, reunite only to cry the whole time. He's alive. He's here. You can see him and talk to him. Gratitude, Kaiba. You need a serious lesson.”

“Please explain to me how I relate to your wife.”

Pegasus snorted, probably at the use of the word please, but Seto needed an answer because his mind spun with possibilities, none of which were particularly pleasant. Pegasus's drunken rant about family worried Seto more than he wanted to admit, even to himself, especially when considered with this level of trust Pegasus wanted them to develop.

“Now you're just being ridiculous, mighty Seto. Saying please like it will change my mind.”

“But you want me to know.”

“I'm sure a talk with Yugi-boy or actually any of those other snoops who rifled through my tower would clear everything up for you. This mysterious bubble would pop and the pieces would come together and you'll have a magic light bulb above your head and a thousand other trite phrases. But you can't talk to them,” Pegasus said. His gaze drifted to somewhere behind Seto. “Only me.”

And then a glance at Seto. “You're not drinking.”

“I don't like wine.” Or getting tipsy and going on some vague rant.

“But we're supposed to be drinking together. That's the whole point of this.”

“Why won't you tell me why I'm really here? Make me understand.”

“You are here to provide me with company for the rest of your life.”

“Why?”

Pegasus's gaze shifted back to Seto. “You tell me.”

“You're lamenting about family enough. Are you wanting us to be your family?”

Pegasus's laugh was louder than normal, a side effect of the alcohol, Seto was sure. But the laugh was short, although still managing to grate at Seto's waning patience.

“Don't be silly. I lost my shot at a family long ago. Just because I'm jealous of your relationship with your brother does not mean I'm hoping to be the third of the brothers Kaiba.”

“Fourth.”

“What?”

“You'd be the fourth. Why can't you tell me?”

“You'll come to it yourself eventually.”

“I'd rather you told me now.”

“No, I don't think I will. You're such a whiz with puzzles. Once you figure me out you'll never go back to tolerating me.”

“Then why try to get me to figure it out at all?”

“Because you'll get it.”

Pegasus gave the wine bottle a shake, like he expected it to have refilled itself in the time since being emptied. Seto took another sip from his own glass for the pretense of having something to do. He was also disinterested in leaving anything in the glass for Pegasus to eye.

“I'll get it as in I'll finally guess or in that I'll understand where you are coming from?”

“Both.”

“I didn't know your wife.”

“Let's not talk about this anymore,” Pegasus said. “We've gotten sidetracked.”

“Mokuba's going to keep acting like that,” Seto said. He didn't like the subject change, but understood the necessity of it. Whatever Pegasus was keeping hidden would apparently push Seto over the edge, and if Seto was supposed to be able to figure it out on his own, he had to be able to contemplate everything Pegasus said. He could sleep on it and return to the subject at a later date.

“Tell me how to make it better for him.”

“We're talking about a fourteen year old boy. A boy who was orphaned at five, given up by his godparents, left in an orphanage, ignored by the man who adopted him, abandoned by his brother, and kidnapped on numerous occasions. He has spent too much of his life alone. He needs to be around someone. Anyone.”

“He's very specific in who he wants.”

“He doesn't know any better. Put him with Muto or Gardner, even if only during the day. Try to keep him out of his own head.”

“You've never asked me to keep him in there with you.”

Seto shook his head. “He's better off on the other side of this glass.”

“But you both want to be together. Wouldn't it make more sense to stay in there? At least—”

“This room is the single worst thing I have experienced. And coming from me, that's a condemning description. I would not do this to Mokuba unless I knew you were hurting him.”

“The room's not that bad.”

“Will you let Mokuba see the others?” Seto asked. Maybe he was exaggerating the horrors of his room, but he wasn't lying about not wanting to subject Mokuba to this. Mokuba might have claimed to want it. Seto knew better. And it wasn't like Pegasus would move Mokuba down even if Seto begged.

There was still a lot of wine left in his glass, but he couldn't bring himself to drink any more of it.

“He doesn't even know they're here.”

“So tell him. If you only spend twenty minutes a day with him, Mokuba will never be okay. You'll traumatize him more than you already have.”

“Or you could start behaving so I can trust you.”

“I'm being perfectly civil.”

This notion that Seto wasn't behaving made him want to punch the glass until his fingers broke. He couldn't remember having been told to behave or mind his manners since the days in the orphanage, when all of the children scrambled to get adopted while the workers scrambled to get rid of the children. Even Gozaburo hadn't cared how Seto acted so long as he didn't insult anyone important.

He wasn't a child in need of a reprimand. And even worse, he hadn't done anything–said a few things, sure–to make Pegasus think that he would act out once he got the chance. He couldn't think of any other way to prove to Pegasus that he just wanted to get to Mokuba.

“Your anger might as well be popping under your skin.”

“My brother was crying and there was nothing I could do to make it any better for him. I had to sit here and watch, unable to even promise that he would be happy again. Whatever you want from us, this isn't the way to get it.”

“This is it, Kaiba-boy.”

Seto rubbed his eyes under his glasses. “Then why are you here? Why ask what you can do to make it easier on Mokuba?”

“Because he is, as you so frequently remind me, a child.”

“And in this grand scheme,” Seto said, hand still blocking his view of Pegasus, “What does it matter if he is a child?”

“It affects me personally. There is no relation to what is going on here.”

“I can't tell if that's the alcohol or you just being confusing.”

“Likely a bit of both. I tend to get loose lips after a few drinks, and I put that all down fairly fast, plus a few sips of something a bit stronger before coming down.”

“You still haven't told me if you’re going to leave Mokuba alone.”

“That's because I'm in no condition to make that decision,” Pegasus said. “And if you aren't going to drink that, you might as well pass it back through.”

“I thought you said you weren't drunk,” Seto said as he lifted the hatch to hand back over the half-empty glass.

“Such a waste. And I'm not, but that doesn't mean that important decisions need to be made now.”

Pegasus locked the hatch when he had Seto's glass, which thankfully he didn't finish on Seto's behalf.

But he didn't stand either, so whatever he had been hoping to gain from coming down a third time that day hadn't been accomplished. Although, if what Pegasus really wanted was to make Mokuba happy, Seto didn't know what to tell him other than what he already had.

“You wouldn't think that a group of children would prove so meddlesome in my life,” Pegasus said. He had the glasses and the bottle in his hand, as if ready to get up, but stayed on the floor by Seto. For the first time, Seto didn't want Pegasus to leave. He stood on the cusp of discovery, and with Pegasus as talkative as he was, this might be the only chance Seto had to figure it out. Maybe spending days reflecting on everything would clear up the mystery, but Seto wanted to know now. Four months was long enough to have been kept in the dark.

“Why do you think I wouldn't be cooperative if I understood?” Seto asked.

“Because you're you and I'm me. You'll jump to shoot down any reason I would give for this setup. You'll try to argue with me and I know me, Kaiba-boy. That will make me angry. And an angry me means I won't be acting very rashly.”

“That sounds like a threat.”

“Let's call it a warning. There are some things that you should take my word for and step away from.”

“But you keep telling me to figure it out.”

“I'm a conundrum. Part of me wants you to know, while the other part wants to hold on to this ignorance. It's another thing to chalk up to my eccentricity.”

And still he didn't move. Whatever internal conflict had rooted itself in Pegasus must have been more extreme than Seto imagined. And that just made it worse. It was bad enough to have been kidnapped and held prisoner for months, but magnified by the captor being emotionally unstable? Whenever Seto did figure out how he related to Pegasus's wife, he would have to tread carefully in asking about it.

“Pick your nicest staff member, guard, doctor, whomever. Pick someone nice and let them spend the days with Mokuba. He'll find a way to get along with anyone you put with him.”

“That's a good idea,” Pegasus said, although it didn't much sound like he had been convinced.

He got to his feet even though Seto could tell that there was more he wanted to say. The whole conversation felt unresolved and Seto didn't want to leave it at that. He needed his answers no matter how he might react to the truth.

Seto stood as well.

“Tell me whatever it is you think I'll react badly to. Maybe I will, but what does that matter? I want out of this room. Even if I spent three weeks cursing and throwing myself against the glass, in the end, you'll get what you want.”

Pegasus's smile might as well have been a frown for all its brightness. “I have what I need, Kaiba-boy. Amazingly enough, as I'm sure you might not realize, I have a soul. You might not like what I want, what I'm owed, but I'm making it easier on you.”

Seto wasn't given the chance to ask any more questions. Pegasus turned off the speaker without another word, then the lights followed, leaving Seto in the dark for the first time in weeks, trying to figure out how he owed Pegasus anything.


	19. Chapter 19

Sometime a week or so later, Seto woke up early and instead of reading, he stared at the glass. Too long had drifted by with all the clues and no answers, and Seto couldn't bring himself to just surrender, to beg for the answer that escaped him. His lack of understanding had to come from his inexperience with the magic that Yugi and Pegasus claimed to have because otherwise he should have been able to put the pieces together.

Something happened during Duelist Kingdom that made Seto owe Pegasus something else. Something magical. Seto couldn't deny what he saw Pegasus do to Mokuba in the dungeon, how blank Mokuba looked when brought out as Pegasus's proxy. As soon as he could fill in those somethings, Seto would have his answer.

And Yugi had that magic pyramid that Pegasus wanted for whatever reason. So Pegasus had wanted to do something magical that somehow tied Seto to his dead wife. But Pegasus already said that he wanted SolidVision from Seto, so maybe the magic didn't relate to Seto so much as the science. The thought was somewhat comforting.

So he had magic, science, and a dead wife. He just didn't know what the magic was capable of doing. He made the science portion of Pegasus's plan and knew the exact limitations of his software. It made projections, incredibly advanced ones that also projected light and movement, but still. Unless Pegasus wanted a projection of his dead wife's figure, Seto couldn't think of any other way to tie the two together.

Although he didn't want to think about it, Seto tried to imagine what he would want magic to do if it was his spouse–he refused to imagine it as Mokuba being dead–who was dead. Maybe have another conversation? To be able to communicate with the dead? To bring the dead back?

He didn't know what was possible with magic, if anything. Maybe that golden eye Pegasus had back then had been able to read minds and lock souls inside of inanimate objects, but that wouldn't have explained how Pegasus knew what Yugi's necklace could do. The most Seto had seen Yugi do with it was win duels and put people into comas.

If Pegasus liked putting people into objects, than maybe he wanted the coma ability as well. Seto smirked at the thought because while it sounded like something insane enough to fit into Pegasus's desired skill set, Seto doubted it was the final goal of his tournament.

Seto determined his question of the morning, so when Pegasus came into view with breakfast, Seto was ready to ask following the traditional, “Good morning, Kaiba-boy.”

“Let's talk about magic.”

Pegasus grinned and knelt down to give Seto his food. “You don't believe in magic,” he said, sliding in the plate and relocking the hatch.

“What do you believe Yugi's necklace does?”

“Are you sure you don't want to wait until tonight to start a discussion?”

“The real discussion can come tonight.”

Pegasus shrugged, although it didn't seem as casual as he tried to make it appear. “What did you want to know again? The shock of the question seems to have erased it from my memory,” Pegasus said, but he sat down, so Seto took that to mean he was willing to talk about it.

“What magic did you think Yugi's necklace possessed?”

“The necklace does have magic, and I didn't just need it. There are seven of those items, you know. You've probably seen most of them, perhaps not the Ankh and the Scales, but—”

“What did you need their powers to do?” Seto asked. The question was ridiculous and it brought back memories of Mokuba reading the Harry Potter books and trying to discuss them with Seto, who never had the time. He should have made the time.

He shook free of the thought. Magic was ridiculous but so was this situation. Whatever it took to get out had to be done.

“That's one of those questions I can't answer.”

Seto rolled his eyes. “Fine. You needed the magic scraps of gold and my software to do something relating to you wife. Is that much at least correct?”

“It is.”

“I don't know enough about the mechanics of all that to deduce some answer.”

“You sound like you have already figured me out.”

“You wanted to talk to her again?” Seto asked, starting with the least of his theories. There were plenty of practicing mediums in the world, so if that was the case, Seto assumed Pegasus would be one of the people who believed in their abilities.

But it got a negative answer.

“You wanted to see her?”

“Not quite.”

Seto considered, not wanting to make a wild guess in the event that it was far off base. But only one of Seto's guesses was drastic enough that Pegasus wouldn't want to say it out loud and that had to be it if nothing else.

“You wanted to bring her back?”

In a slow motion, Pegasus lifted a finger and pressed it to the tip of his nose. He held it there for a second before folding both hands neatly in his lap. His lips were firm and his posture tense, like he expected Seto to go into a raging fit at any moment.

“And Yugi won.”

A nod.

“And I wouldn't give you SolidVision.”

Another.

“And Mokuba refused as well.”

One more.

Seto was sure that the rest of the Geek Squad fit in there somehow, but figuring out the specifics could wait until the afternoon. There were far more pressing matters than those people, and a conversation Pegasus had prompted came to the forefront of Seto's thoughts.

It all made sense in that twisted way Pegasus thought.

“A life for a life, then?”

The final nod.

Seto didn't expect his calm. Pegasus claimed that he owned Mokuba's life because of something done unaware three years ago, but Seto sat as still as Pegasus and stared. His gaze faced Pegasus, but he focused on the glass so everything behind it blurred.

From Pegasus's perspective, Seto kept his wife dead. And because Pegasus believed in the notion of a life for a life, keeping her dead meant that Seto forfeited his life to Pegasus. And not just Seto, but all of them who had a hand in stopping him at Duelist Kingdom. If Pegasus believed that he owned Seto—

—then the glass cage was not the worst he could have done. To truly make that notion fair, Pegasus would have had to kill the seven of them, or six, because Devlin wasn't supposed to be involved. Pegasus felt guilty for hurting Mokuba as he had, so maybe he felt guilty for doing this to all of them. But no, if that was the case, then he would have just killed them or let them go. Maybe guilt was too strong of an emotion. Maybe he understood that it wasn't fair to punish them for what they weren't aware of doing, but still felt compelled to make things right in his own mind.

There were too many possibilities to think through before Pegasus left for the day. Seto had the afternoon to attempt deciphering Pegasus's thought processes.

“Okay,” Seto said, keeping his voice calm and his gaze off Pegasus. “You had three years to think back on Duelist Kingdom, and in that time, this is what you came up with?”

Anger flashed on Pegasus's face, darkening his eye and twisting his lips into a slight snarl. Seto didn't want to make him angry, not now, not with this knowledge.

“You said you wanted me to understand where you were coming from. You know me. I need all the information before I can fully comprehend a full idea. I'm not saying you're wrong.”

“But you're thinking it,” Pegasus said. He stood and marched to the glass. “Admit it.”

“I don't know what to think,” Seto said. Pegasus's warning about making him angry replayed in Seto's thoughts, and Pegasus still had to visit Mokuba. Seto could get angry after Pegasus left, but not to his face.

“You're right, Kaiba. I know you. You think I don't see how you've been trying to manipulate me this whole time? Trying to make me feel so bad for the poor, abused Seto and the lonely Mokuba? Any placating things you have to say now are you trying to hide your disgust.”

Placating or not, Seto had his limits. He stood and walked up to the glass, getting close to stare straight at Pegasus.

“You questioned my past, not me, but I'll admit to supplicating on Mokuba's behalf because you said it, he's a kid. But none of that has to do with the fact that I'm trying to understand you right now. Look at me. I'm no angrier than normal.”

“I'll leave you to your breakfast.”

And Pegasus did.

Instead of going for his breakfast, Seto went straight for the bathroom. He closed the door behind him and walked to the sink, turning the water to cold and splashing it over his face. It wouldn't help him calm down, but it gave him something to do other than taking a swing at the mirror.

He met his reflection's gaze and focused all his energy on glaring at himself. His hands shook so he grabbed onto the lip of the sink, squeezing until he lost feeling in his knuckles. His heart didn't race as much as it boomed, each beat pounding against his chest.

If Pegasus was actually delusional enough to believe he owned Seto's life, Mokuba's life, then they weren't going anywhere. He would maim them or kill them before letting them get away because he believed it was his right. Trying to escape would be more difficult than Seto expected; it very well could be his life on the line should he fail. Maybe Pegasus would just lock him back up, but maybe he would decide Seto was more trouble than he was worth.

And it didn't make any sense to keep them all as companions. Pegasus should have been resentful if what he said was true. If there had been a way to bring back his wife and he was stopped, the people who stopped him shouldn't have been used to fill in for her absence. Seto couldn't think of another way around that. Pegasus was trying to replace his wife with the people who apparently kept her dead.

Pegasus was wrong. Seto didn't understand. He didn't get it. If Mokuba had been hurt, then Seto wouldn't want to keep the attacker around. And he especially wouldn't plan picnics and birthday parties for the three of them. It was the most twisted revenge Seto had heard of because it hardly resembled revenge.

It was just madness.

If Seto had purposefully tried to keep Pegasus's wife in her grave, then he could have agreed that yes, he understood and possibly deserved it. But Pegasus tried to have Seto killed, kidnapped Mokuba, sealed their souls into cards, and technically, Pegasus won. He got SolidVision. So it wasn't even Seto or Mokuba who prevented him from his insane goal. So if anything, Yugi was to blame. And he wouldn't have even fought Pegasus if not for Pegasus going after his grandfather.

Pegasus said that if Seto talked to the others, he would have figured it out weeks ago. So they knew about his wife. But knowing Yugi, he would have done everything he could to save Pegasus's wife and his grandfather, had he known. He couldn't have, not during the tournament.

Insanity. This was pure insanity.

Seto broke the staring contest with himself and turned to sit on the floor. He bent his knees and propped his forearms on them, staring toward his shower. He cracked each knuckle one at a time and tried to wrap his head around the nonsense Pegasus led him to.

He need to think thoroughly and carefully. Finding out the truth had angered Pegasus to the point he stormed out, so asking after the subject would amplify that. And after seeing Mokuba and learning how hard of a time he was having, Seto couldn't risk Pegasus deciding to keep him in the glass any longer. Pegasus had even given Seto a warning in advance.

Seto understood why the subject would be touchy. If there had been a way to bring back his wife and Yugi stopped it, then his hopes would have been dashed. It would have been like losing her a second time. Maybe he had found a way to paint himself as the victim in all that happened, and Pegasus's head was clearly warped enough that he might be able to rationalize that, but even so, blaming Mokuba?

No, figure out Pegasus before trying to find a way out for Mokuba.

The life for a life conversation. Seto could have figured this game out back then if he had ever thought to question why Pegasus had orchestrated Duelist Kingdom. He always assumed Pegasus wanted KaibaCorp; plenty of people did. There was no need to question it further because the motive had been so clear. Pegasus wanted KaibaCorp, and when Seto said no, he threw a fit and lashed out. It wasn't supposed to have been more complicated than that.

She was dead.

They kept her dead.

They owed their lives.

The line of reasoning was there, even if it was absurd and technically should have been impossible to follow. Most people didn't have the time or resources to pull something off like this, not on this grand scale or for this duration. Most people weren't millionaires living on private islands with a pocketbook large enough to bribe an entire staff to stay quiet about holding seven people hostage. Most people wouldn't want to. If Pegasus actually blamed them for his wife being dead, then he should have just killed them, made it even.

He thought back to the conversation after Mokuba's birthday, when Pegasus had wanted advice on helping Mokuba. It wasn't because Mokuba's attitude changed the situation, but because Pegasus had a soul. Or something along those lines. So maybe, taking their lives was justice, but keeping them alive was charity?

Of all of the ways to take someone's life, this was certainly the strangest result Seto could think of. But further thought had Seto about convinced that it was the only way to actually take someone's life. Killing them ended it. Locking them away hid it. Forgiving them allowed it.

But conditioning them, twisting their perspective until they fell into Pegasus's hands? That took it. Or even more, they kept her dead, so he was keeping them. The phrasing evened out even if the results didn't.

Seto couldn't explain the desire for trust that Pegasus had been so insistent upon. It probably made Pegasus's life easier if he didn't have to go from cell to cell, but could group people together in more practical spaces. Like the wing he had moved Mokuba into, he mentioned that having a kitchenette, so he wouldn't have to cook their meals for them any longer. And sure, he had mentioned that Seto and Mokuba might not see the others, but that didn't mean that Pegasus wouldn't group the Geek Squad together. Then he would have two stops rather than seven. Trust made his life more convenient. That had to be the answer.

But he needed to talk to Pegasus to confirm the answer. Pegasus would be wary of Seto now, ready to storm out at a misspoken syllable. And because Pegasus kept all his secrets to himself until Seto could guess them, Seto needed to guess the safe topics until he got a better feel for the situation.

The game changed in a few minutes of conversation, leaving Seto forty steps behind. Pegasus owned Boardwalk while Seto scraped together enough pink bills for Mediterranean Avenue. Pegasus could end Seto's life and feel justified. He could kill Mokuba.

And Seto couldn't do a thing to stop him.

Seto collected his thoughts and stood to give his reflection another glance. He washed his face again and shaved before going back to where the camera could see him. He believed Pegasus before when he said that the camera was just in case of an emergency. Pegasus couldn't sit around all day and night watching tapes of Seto reading. But today he instinctively knew that Pegasus would be watching. It was how Seto would have reacted. The mystery disappeared and the veil was lifted and more appropriate metaphors, and Seto knew that Pegasus would be looking for a reason to pick a fight. Maybe out of guilt, he had to know that it wasn't fair to take his revenge in this way. But Duelist Kingdom hadn't been fair either.

So Seto picked up his breakfast and sat on the floor by the bookcase, facing the camera. Pegasus would be expecting a show, and Seto would give him one–a boring show of compliance.

* * *

The speaker turned on and Seto steeled himself. He stared at the book a bit longer before putting it down and looking up.

“Kaiba.”

“What? No good afternoon?”

“I doubt you're finding it particularly good.”

Pegasus carried the plate over to the hatch, accompanied by a water bottle. His movements were mechanical and Seto wondered if he had considered not coming down at all. But Seto had stayed calm all day and Pegasus had to have taken that into account. He could continue being calm, rational, careful.

“It's been about the same as any other. How's Mokuba?”

When Pegasus frowned, his entire face took part. He was skeptical, sure, but Seto wasn't going to jump straight into “You know I didn't kill your wife.”

“He spent the day painting the walls.”

“Do I get to know what color he picked?”

“This is the fakest you've been, Seto.”

Seto pressed a hand back against the wall to stand. He couldn't just be nice, that would be as bad as shouting, but he could keep himself collected.

“You're being confrontational enough for the both of us.”

“This isn't like you. You want answers and the only way you can get them is to ask. You aren't asking.”

Seto picked up the plate. He sat on the edge of his bed and set the plate in his lap, taking the fork so he had something to do with his hands. His position was non-threatening, although no position could really be threatening so long as Seto was trapped. But he went with it, crossing his legs and doing his best to relax his shoulders.

Pegasus was in control. No games, no manipulation, just surrender.

“You don't want to talk about it,” Seto said. He glanced away, especially careful not to let his gaze wander over to the painting. He couldn't reference Mokuba, not now.

Everybody has somebody.

Pegasus didn't. Best not to remind him of that fact.

“Okay,” Seto said, using a tone he knew would sound like he was relenting. “You're right. I have questions. A lot of them, in fact. But I don't want them answered as much as I want to get out of this room. You name what I need to do and I'll do it.”

It wasn't get back to Mokuba, it wasn't go home, it wasn't get free. Seto tried to make it sound like he wanted to dig deeper into Pegasus's world, to continue playing the game with the one-sided rules. There was no competition.

Seto needed to be on Pegasus's team.

“If you didn't want me to know,” Seto said, after a few seconds of silence, “You could have denied it. I know that you want honesty, but still.”

I know that you want honesty.

“You say you know that, but then give me this victim act. Just yell at me already.”

“Is that what you want me to do?”

Pegasus crossed his arms and sent a withering glare down at Seto. Instead of filling the silence like he had done the time before, Seto stayed quiet. Until Pegasus started communicating normally again, Seto wouldn't be able to get through to him.

“I don't know,” Pegasus said, dropping his arms and airs before collapsing into the chair. “I don't know.”

“Why did you say that I would understand you on this?” Seto asked. He did so carefully, taking the time to speak each word on its own to test Pegasus's reaction.

“You have Mokuba.”

“So you want me to understand your motivations, not necessarily the actions you've taken.”

Pegasus rubbed his hands over his face and leaned forward so his hair blocked Seto's view. Where Seto had to force his own shoulders to slouch, Pegasus's seemed to melt toward the floor.

“I don't really expect you to get it,” Pegasus said, his hands still over his face. “You still have Mokuba.”

Now that Pegasus was sitting, Seto decided it would be safe to sit straight again. He set the plate aside and folded his hands together over his knees. It wouldn't suit to be all business here. This subject was personal for Pegasus, and unfortunately for Seto, he wasn't efficient in handling people's personal troubles.

“Is that why you're keeping us apart?” Seto asked, doing his best to keep all accusation far away from his tone.

Pegasus looked up at Seto in exasperation, which was fine because it wasn't anger. He lifted his palms and asked, “What do you want me to tell you that I haven't before? You two aren't together because you need to accept me independently of each other. It isn't because I'm a jealous nutcase.”

“I'm asking you to tell me how I can accept you. I'm ready to try.”

“You're scared of me,” Pegasus said.

Seto smirked. “I'm not scared of anything.”

Pegasus returned Seto's smirk with one of his own. “Oh, come now. I could probably disprove that easily.”

It might have been the faint smirk or the slouched position, but Seto thought Pegasus had never looked younger. He wasn't as old as his hair might have signified, but Seto hadn't really given it much thought before.

“He's just a kid,” Seto said.

“I know.”

Seto thought over his next question for at least half a minute. As down as Pegasus seemed, he might still snap or do something rash with any trigger. Bringing up Mokuba hadn't set him off, so Seto ventured another probing question, phrased as a passing thought.

“I wouldn't have thought you would want trust, friendship, not from us.”

“Well, you're not always right, Kaiba-boy.”

“Why not just kill us? Get it over with?”

Pegasus glared, but it was a weak effort. “I'm not the same person I was back during my tournament,” and here he waved two fingers in the direction of his hidden eye. “Just because I tried to have you killed then doesn't mean I want that now.”

“And you're sure that this—” Seto paused to tap the bed, as if it encompassed the entirety of the situation, “—is what you want?”

“I've had three years to think it over. This is what's best.”

Seto nearly reiterated, “But not what you want,” but thought better of it. What Pegasus wanted, or at least had wanted, wasn't possible. This was best.

“I'm not going to snap at you,” he said instead. “You might as well stop waiting for it.”

Pegasus smiled and raised an eyebrow. “No? I find that hard to believe.”

“Not about this, at least. Something will set me off eventually.”

“So why is the great, abrasive Seto Kaiba not going to snap at me about why I'm keeping him and his brother against their wills?”

Seto took a moment to make it look like he was collecting his thoughts, while really, he was forming his lie. Pegasus wasn't paying the most attention to him right now, so he could probably get away with one with ease.

“It's about your wife, which makes it more serious than if you were just trying to get revenge for being denied KaibaCorp or if this was all just a cure for loneliness. I'm not saying that I agree with you or condone this, but it's obviously more important to you than I had anticipated. I take that to mean you're serious about us not leaving and that I'm never getting back to my home. And if that's the case, I would rather stay with Mokuba than alone down here.”

There were a lot of truthful statements in Seto's lie. It was the key to lying well, and Pegasus didn't give him that knowing look. The lie stood for the time. And as Pegasus hadn't spoken up, Seto added for greater effect, “Don't get me wrong. I'm still going to fight you and argue with you when you're acting insane, but I'll do anything to get you to trust me.”

“Saying 'anything' is so dangerous, Kaiba-boy. Who knows what I'd ask you to do?”

Seto shook his head. “Last time we were in a similar situation, I bet on my life to get Mokuba back. Anything is fitting.”

“Ah yes. It must be so nice to be able to offer your life in place of another. Particularly when you both make it out unharmed.”

“Don't say that,” Seto said. He had warned Pegasus that he would argue back, after all, and it was time to prove that. “Mokuba was not unharmed by what you did. Don't make light of traumatizing him.”

“My apologies. You're right. Although what I did to the two of you was a necessary evil, it doesn't mean it was without consequence.”

A necessary evil. Seto popped his neck to distract from how hard he was biting down on his tongue, forcing himself not to fight the phrase. It wasn't necessary to kidnap a ten-year-old, to hold him hostage, to keep him in a dungeon. There were other ways to accomplish his goal without tormenting a child.

“You said if we made it back to the mainland, you would have to give up on us. That's not true, is it?”

“You're not going to get off the island,” Pegasus said. “It's a moot point.”

“Assume I did.”

“You're not going anywhere,” Pegasus said, this time more firmly. The words weren't harsh, but a convincing statement of fact. Pegasus believed it and he wanted Seto to as well.

“Okay,” Seto said, although the word was hard. “I'm not going anywhere. It will be easier on all of us if you would just put me with Mokuba.”

“You're just trying to pacify me now,” Pegasus said. He sat up straight, which Seto took as a sign that he had collected himself.

“Of course I'm trying to pacify you. It's like you said on day one, I'm in here, you're out there, so I should be nice.”

Pegasus laughed and leaned back, finally having gotten to his usual position for their talks. Seto still needed to be careful, but Pegasus was warming up to the idea of talking about what was really going on. And just because Seto had agreed to play nice didn't mean Pegasus would just let him out. He still had time to ask all the needed questions.

And he had about five minutes left during this visit.

“I apologize for my behavior earlier,” Pegasus said. “It wasn't justified.”

“It's a touchy subject. I get it.”

The anger, not the subject.

“To be fair, you got quite snippy when I asked about your father and your godparents.”

“Emotionally honest, I believe you called it.”

Checking his watch, Pegasus said, “Yes, congratulations. You've now witnessed my emotional honesty. I'm sure I seemed far more maniacal to you then.”

Maybe four minutes remained, and Seto wasn't sure how to bring the subject back around. Pegasus had calmed, but not to the point that Seto felt confident enough to bring the subject of Pegasus's wife back up. It might end up better to lay groundwork, to convince Pegasus that Seto was going to remain calm no matter what subjects or horrifying facts were brought to light.

“You want me to trust you too,” Seto said, more as a lead to a new subject than a request for confirmation. So he gave Pegasus the time to nod before saying, “Then you can't make it so I'm hesitant to ask you questions. If I'm avoiding subjects because I think you'll keep me from seeing Mokuba, I'm not going to be able to trust you.”

“If that's the case, Kaiba-boy, you shouldn't stop me from asking about your touchy subjects.”

“I reserve the right not to answer, but,” Seto said, pausing to add to the touches of surrender he was trying to convey, “I'll try not to get too upset if you ask something I don't want to discuss.”

“That sounds like a fair deal.”

“You haven't brought me evidence this week,” Seto said.

Pegasus let out a heavy breath that Seto could only see in the movement of his lips and chest. “Yes,” Pegasus said, inclining his head and pursing his lips for a moment. “Your brother is being a touch uncooperative.”

“How's that?”

“He's tired of the photos and is now insisting that you join him. I can take a still shot from the camera, I suppose.”

Seto nodded. It wasn't what he usually received, but it would work. And it would give him a glimpse at the room Pegasus had set up for the two of them. And besides, Seto mostly believed that Pegasus had no intentions of hurting Mokuba.

“We have a few minutes. Why don't you explain your brother's mindset on that? I mean, it doesn't affect me if I can't take a picture of him. It hurts you, if anyone.”

“He's not getting anything out of it,” Seto guessed. “It probably makes him uncomfortable, and in addition to being alone all the time, it's something he has control over.”

“But the pictures are for you.”

“If he thought it would actually hurt me, I doubt he would refuse. He knows I'll understand.”

“You doubt it? You're not even sure?”

“Mokuba is a kid, very mature, but still a kid. Children act out against their parents. And he's a teenager, so, hormones.”

“You're a teenager, Kaiba-boy.”

“Don't pretend like I count.”

“Well,” Pegasus said, giving his watch a final glance. “We're just about out of time. Any last questions before I go?”

Seto shook his head. “I'll have some by the morning, I'm sure.”

“Then this is goodnight. And I do apologize, again, for the way I acted.”

“Save it. Otherwise we'll never stop throwing them back and forth,” Seto said, although it wasn't like he had any intentions of apologizing for anything.

“Of course. Goodnight, Kaiba-boy.”

Pegasus left the lights on and turned off the speaker. Because getting up immediately would be too obvious, Seto stayed where he was and ate the dinner Pegasus had brought. The water bottle was left for later since Seto still stockpiled all the sealed foods and it fell into that category.

After eating, he took the plate to the hatch and set it close enough Pegasus wouldn't have any trouble getting to it. Then he went back to the bed and picked up his book, staring at the pages for as long as he could bear the bubbling anger.

And at smoothly as he could, Seto bookmarked his page with another book before walking into the bathroom and sliding the door closed behind him. He gave the walls a glance, ruling out the drywall and focusing on the concrete. The wall with the shower didn't have enough space, but the one opposite of the sink and the toilet would be fine. It was bare save a towel rack, and Seto could work around it.

Seto stood in front of it and picked his spot.

He swung at that spot with every ounce of energy he could muster. He swung again and again because the anger and stress hadn't faded with the first punch. The second and third proved just as ineffective, so Seto didn't stop. The dull, repetitive thudding did more to calm Seto than the actual pain of the contact.

Pegasus was going to kill them all.

It might not be soon, but one of the idiots he brought in would say something to unravel the entire illusion Pegasus had built around justifying kidnapping seven teenagers, and he would just leave them to die or bring down a gun. It might not even be Seto who triggered Pegasus, but that glass wall couldn't protect him from a bullet.

Red smeared on white and it just made Seto think of Mokuba getting killed because Pegasus blamed a child for killing his wife. No strategy could keep Mokuba safe, not when they all depended on each other to keep Pegasus calm. His life depended on the fucking Geek Squad—Mokuba's life.

How could Seto have let Mokuba get caught up in this?

Eventually, the pain settled in and Seto stopped. His knuckles were raw and hopefully not fractured, and his fingers wouldn't move out of their curled position.

Seto took a deep breath that did nothing before heading to the sink to run his hand under the tap. He gently rubbed away the blood, then grabbed the rag he had been using to clean, wetting it and taking it over to wash his blood off the wall. It didn't come off completely, but left the white paint a darker shade.

Seto went back into his room and fell onto the bed, picking up the book and hiding his hand behind the pages.


	20. Chapter 20

“Good morning, Kaiba-boy,” Pegasus said when he showed up the next morning, which Seto was fairly sure was a Saturday.

“Pegasus,” Seto said, because before finding out, he had been slacking off on the responses Pegasus had asked for. Maybe forgetting to greet Pegasus would be the final tipping point that would keep him away from Mokuba forever. He doubted it, but it wasn't worth the risk.

“Is your hand bleeding?”

Seto glanced down at his hand, which wasn't bleeding, but had scabbed over during the night. The area all around the scabs was a bold pink made all the brighter by the whiteness of Seto's room. He couldn't have kept it hidden for the whole hour and a half.

“It's not.”

“What happened to it?”

“What's it going to take for you to start bringing me coffee every morning?”

Pegasus set Seto's breakfast that lacked coffee on the chair and crossed his arms. “Your hand.”

Holding it up like it was nothing, Seto said, “Just a scrape.”

“And how did you scrape it?”

Seto shook his head. Pegasus attributed anything Seto said as a lie. Best to let Pegasus draw his own conclusion, even at the expense of Seto's pride. Because it was about getting to Mokuba, not Seto's dignity, but the truth was out of the question.

“I'm blind without my glasses,” he said, hoping Pegasus would accept it as an answer and move on, but knowing better.

“So you tripped?” Pegasus asked flatly.

Seto shrugged, disliking the mental image it must have created for Pegasus and wishing he had taken the time to come up with something a little less ridiculous.

“You're lying through your teeth,” Pegasus said, although with some amusement.

“I'd like to think if I was going to make up a lie, I would choose one a bit more dignified.” And not using his poor eyesight as an excuse.

“Does it need medical attention?” Pegasus asked, his tone now more exasperated than anything else. Whether or not he believed Seto, the subject might be about to change.

“Nothing's broken. But the coffee?”

Pegasus shook his head and turned to grab the plate. He went through the normal routine of getting it switched out, and while he did, he answered Seto's question. “Because I have to bring food to all seven of you and you're toward the end of my list. It's difficult to keep it hot for you.”

“Is today Saturday?” Seto asked.

“It is.”

“Do you flip the rotation for the weekend?”

“Saturday is your brother's night for dinner. So I have a quick breakfast in the mornings with him, and then join him again in the evening. It's a wonderful system.”

“What did you two do this morning?” Seto wasn't going to be the first person to bring up the conversation from the night before. Not this soon.

“Finishing touches on your wing. We've got it all decorated and filled with furniture. You know he rejected half of my design choices? Pernicious little child.”

“Do you even know what that word means?” Seto asked. He heard the snap to his voice, but didn't like Pegasus throwing out the word so casually regarding Mokuba. He told Pegasus to expect continued arguments and the occasional snap.

“It is well representative of your brother's attitude this morning. Honestly, I'd make some marvelous suggestion about moving the ottoman, and he'd reject it out of spite. So don't you blame me if you get up there and hate everything.”

“If?”

Pegasus shook his head. “I'm sorry. When you get up there.”

He didn't sound sorry, and from the way he avoided looking in Seto's direction, he intended the slip. A warning then? Don't expect knowing the truth to provide any leverage? Seto knowing somehow changed nothing but affected everything.

Taking off his glasses, Seto rubbed the bridge of his nose while rationalizing his thoughts. He had no way to prove Pegasus meant the threat. It could have been a mistake. Getting out of the room meant trust, even feigned trust.

Don't question it.

“Are you going to eat?”

Seto put his glasses back on.

“Are you going to make me play twenty questions again while I do?”

Pegasus shrugged and pulled his chair up to the glass. It was the first time he settled in that location to talk. Usually if he sat next to the glass, it was on the floor to play chess.

“You could ask the questions this time. I'm sure you could think up twenty, and I'll answer them as best I can.”

“I didn't think you wanted to answer my questions,” Seto said. He sat on the edge of the bed with his plate, breakfast or lunch, he couldn't really tell, and then scooted back enough that he could cross his legs underneath himself.

“But if I didn't give you the chance to ask, you would just do that thing of yours, Kaiba-boy, where you try to ask the question without really asking it. I'm not in the mood for that silly game.”

“You? Not in the mood for a game?”

“Don't go squandering this opportunity. Who knows when I'll be feeling this chatty again?”

Seto debated whether or not to ask his questions, because he really didn't want to set off Pegasus any more than he already had. He couldn't do anything to protect Mokuba should he accidentally anger Pegasus. But Pegasus had said he liked Mokuba, so maybe he wouldn't do anything to hurt him.

“Why didn't you tell anyone your aim with the tournament?”

Pegasus crossed his arms and Seto tried not to read into it as a defensive gesture. “Don't pretend like you would have handed over SolidVision if I had told you that I wanted to bring back my wife.”

“I wouldn't have. You caught me at a bad time. But Mokuba would have helped or tried to convince me to help. So you couldn't have told him. And if there's one thing the Geek Squad has going for them, it's their messiah complex. Muto would have helped too.”

“Yugi-boy wouldn't have handed over his Puzzle just like you wouldn't have let me use SolidVision. It's too important to just give up.”

“He had no reason to want to help Mokuba or me, but he did regardless. He would have found a way.”

“You're not going to change my mind of this.”

“Did I say I was trying to change your mind? This is my attempt at understanding because I can't seem to rationalize it. How does keeping us here make what happened right?”

“Nothing is going to make it right,” Pegasus said. He uncrossed his arms to tug at the lapels of his suit, which for the first time Seto realized was a completely impractical outfit for a recluse living on an island, and sat up even straighter. “This is just the closest I can get.”

“Then why not actually take revenge on us? Kill us and move on? This has got to be more trouble than it's worth.”

“Are you asking me to kill you?”

“I'm asking why this is what you settled on. According to you, you would have your wife back now if not for us. Why would you want us around?”

“You kept my Cecelia from me, yes. But I'm not ignoring the fact that you were just children at the time or that you believed me to be merely a ruthless villain. There's a hole in my world that the seven of you caused and can't fill. This is the best I can do.”

“We can't replace her,” Seto said.

“Of course you aren't replacing her,” Pegasus snapped, and Seto leaned back, just enough that he hoped Pegasus took it as a sign of him backing off that train of thought.

“You said you wanted my company. Was that a lie?”

Pegasus raised his finger. “I want your companionship. That wasn't a lie, but it isn't what I need from you. There's a striking difference between the two.”

“I wouldn't want to be friends with someone who kept Mokuba from me,” Seto said, although he realized how it came across. He swallowed, considering justifying his phrasing, but Pegasus would never believe him if he just stopped fighting, so he left the statement alone.

“Then I suppose you should be grateful that I'm not like you. I'm giving you a chance where as you wouldn't have given me a similar courtesy.”

Seto shook his head and moved the fork around on his plate. “I also didn't lock you up after Duelist Kingdom to retaliate for you taking Mokuba.”

“Tone, Kaiba-boy.”

“You can't expect us to be honest with each other if I'm having to concern myself over my tone.”

“Plenty of people in this world are honest and polite.”

“I'm not one of them.”

A little laugh and Pegasus answered, “Your brother would have my head if you started spouting off compliments every three seconds.”

“So I know now. Why can't I move upstairs?”

Pegasus adjusted in his seat and folded his hands together on his lap. He might have seemed sympathetic if Seto thought him capable of the emotion. But the question had to be voiced.

“I have guards to protect me and I carry a taser,” Pegasus said. “There are precautions in place should any of you attempt hurting me, because I'm not under the delusion that I could beat you in a fight, even if you aren't at your best right now.”

“You're worried I'll attack you?”

The corner of Pegasus's lips pinched and he inclined his head. “Not quite. But I would rather not take the chance should you decide to.”

“I've already told you. I'm not a murderer.”

“But you agreed you would do whatever it took to get Mokuba away from me, including murder. So until I'm convinced that you aren't a threat to me, we will continue conversing through this wall.”

“That's what you mean by trust?”

“It is.”

“I'm aware you wouldn't make it easy for us to get back home even if I killed you.”

“And as soon as I believe that, you'll go upstairs with your brother.”

“Are you trying to believe it? Because if I'm to believe that you own my life, then you would have no reason to move me anywhere. It would be easier to keep me in here, if just to eliminate the potential for a threat.”

“That's a clear sign that you still don't trust me, Kaiba-boy. I don't want this for you.”

“You brought me here, built this room to store me. What else am I supposed to think than this is where you want me?”

“I didn't think you would trust me anywhere else.”

Seto gave up the pretense of eating, which he hadn't been paying much attention to himself. The plate was put aside and Seto propped his elbows on his knees. Breakfast or lunch could wait.

His words needed to be picked carefully, because if he crossed over the line he was about to tightrope, then Pegasus might not let him out for much longer than anticipated. If he said it correctly, then maybe it would speed up the process. Seto didn't really see much of a middle ground.

“You have Mokuba. If I can't see Mokuba or check in with him, I'm not ever going to feel convinced that he's safe. It doesn't matter if I trust you. He could be with Roland, but if I can't get in touch with him, I'm going to assume the worst. You can't ask me to trust you on that.”

“Isn't that why I'm bringing you evidence every week?”

“Evidence can be staged, and I spoke with Mokuba. I know how poorly he is handling this.”

“He isn't doing that poorly. While I'll admit he's having a difficult time adjusting, he isn't being tortured. His room is perfectly lovely although not in my particular tastes, and he has a lot more to do than you do.”

“Is that how you justify it to yourself? It's not that bad because at least he's not in a dungeon this time?”

“It won't be that bad so long as you two learn to trust me. Then it goes back to rainbows and lollipops.”

Seto turned his face down and away from Pegasus only long enough to close his eyes and attempt toning down the hatred he felt pooling.

“You're putting us in an impossible circumstance and asking us to overlook it on your word alone. You once said I wouldn't get out of here until I told you what it is going to take to gain my trust. That's it. Put me with Mokuba.”

“I can't do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because, silly boy, I know your steps as well as you do. You can't escape without little Mokuba in tow. Step one has always been to get up to him. So before I can let that happen, I have to trust you.”

“And I can't prove that to you, not from in here.”

“You can.”

“Care to tell me how?”

“You'd try to fake it then.”

Seto needed to move around, so he got up and walked over to the wall. He didn't like the idea of pacing in front of Pegasus, even though he could just watch the shots from the camera and see it. Seto hated the stare of the physical eye.

“Are you going to tell the others or force them to guess as well?” Seto asked.

“Tell the others that they have to trust me? I've already—”

“You know what I mean.”

Pegasus crossed his legs and put both hands over his knee, giving Seto an expression so patient that he wanted to say something just to force it away. “No. I'd rather you all came to the conclusion on your own.”

“Is that a part of your master plan?”

“It's easier that way. Just look at you. If I had started off with my motives, you would have never discussed it with me so calmly. I'm sure you've rationalized and considered my argument for me.”

“That doesn't mean I've agreed with it.”

“You wouldn't have asked the question if you weren't sure of the answer, Kaiba-boy. That implies you gave it serious thought.”

“I think you're wrong,” Seto said. He crossed his arms and met Pegasus's gaze more forcibly than before. Being passive for too long was almost as irritating as the situation as a whole.

“I know. And you're welcome to think that so long as you don't act on it,” Pegasus paused and leaned forward a bit. “Now I'd say I've been exceedingly forthcoming. Yes? It's your turn. What happened to your hand?”

Seto debated carrying on the lie, but didn't feel like arguing the ineptitude Pegasus suggested.

“I punched a wall.”

With a nod, Pegasus leaned back. “Now that I believe.”

“It's fine,” Seto said, holding up his hand to prove that he could flex all of his fingers. “So drop it.”

“Someone's cranky today.”

“When am I not?”

“That's a very astute point. Although you do manage to hold it back when you are trying to get your way.”

Seto debated how much of what Pegasus said was taunting and how much was egging for a reaction. He refused to believe the majority of what Pegasus said was an actual attempt at garnering trust. His half of the conversation flaunted his position, all of it.

“I don't think you would take me seriously if I started to yell.”

“I had gotten quite used to you yelling. This quiet act can be disconcerting.”

“Make up your mind already. Either I'm passive or aggressive.”

“I believe there is a term for the middle ground there. What was it again—?” Pegasus said, letting his sentence drift away as he held Seto's gaze.

“You want me to be passive aggressive?”

“How about you just be my favorite Kaiba-boy?”  
  
“Isn't Mokuba your favorite Kaiba?”

Pegasus tapped his finger on his knee. “You might have gotten me there. Although I've never referred to him by that name. That's a special one reserved for you.”

“Let's play chess,” Seto said. He didn't give Pegasus time to disagree before he sat down in front of the glass to wait.

Pegasus nodded and stood to push the chair away to grab the chess set. He hadn't followed through on his idea to get a customized set, so they still used the plastic pieces.

“You saw your father after the surgery,” Pegasus said.

Seto caught himself as his eyes started to widen, throwing out an “Is that a question?” to mask his surprise.

“Sort of, I suppose. Was he talking to you?”

“He was.”

Pegasus set up the pieces and turned the board around so the black side faced Seto. And like Seto, he sat on the floor, getting close to the glass with just the board in between.

“Were you talking to me or to him?”

“I don't know,” Seto said, thinking through the possibilities of Pegasus's opening move. “I don't remember much of it.”

“I wonder why you react so poorly to medication. Did all your memories ever come back from the convention?”

“No. It's likely just the sedative part I don't take well to.”

Seto's move was a throw-away to drag on the game. The weekends always dragged on, and there were only so many games of chess Pegasus would tolerate. Each one had to last as long as possible.

“Would you like to know what happened? It's a rather dull account of the precedings, but I can tell you.”

Seto nodded and gave Pegasus his move. Pegasus's openings were getting better, but he always lost interest halfway through the game. Seto doubted that Pegasus would ever end up winning a game, not just again him, but anyone who knew a thing about chess.

“You two got to your car. It was rigged to release an airborne sedative when you started it.”

“That was stupid. What if it took too long to knock me out and I had made it down the street?”

Pegasus snorted. “Look, Kaiba-boy's all worried about pedestrians. Who knew?”

“You said Mokuba was in the car with me.”

“Ah, yes, little Mokuba triggers the safety-conscious Seto. You're giving me a look. Was that a bad move?”

“They are all bad moves. You're bad at this game.”

“You could teach me,” Pegasus said, moving a bishop into the direct line of Seto's rook.

“Learn on your own time.”

“But this is my free time. You all get every spare minute I have.”

Seto nearly responded with “I doubt that,” but said, “I'm sure you can spare a few minutes a day to read up on it.”

Making changes like that might have been the best way to prove that Pegasus had gained Seto's trust. Pegasus said there was a way, and that could be it, to stop verbalizing his doubt at everything Pegasus said or did. Even the little things like what Pegasus did with his time, Seto didn't have to agree, he just needed not to disagree. It was doable, and a start.

Seto took the king five moves later and sighed.

“Fine. I'm only going through these strategies once, so listen—”


	21. Chapter 21

“Good afternoon, Kaiba-boy.”

“You haven't brought new books in a while.”

Pegasus frowned and looked into Seto's room like that would confirm the statement. “I haven't? I know I had set some aside for you.” He leaned to search the area behind Seto, then added, “They must still be in the library. I'll bring them in the morning.”

“Are they books not in French?”

“Some of them.”

“Why am I learning French?”

“Because you're bored and learning a new language is time consuming.”

Pegasus switched Seto's plates and relocked the hatch, but there was something else with the plate. It was about time for one of the pictures of Mokuba, so Seto walked over to pick up the paper sticking out from under the plate, sliding it out carefully as not to spill the mountain of broccoli.

It wasn't a picture of Mokuba, but a graph of KaibaCorp profits. He skimmed over it, taking in the amounts and the dates listed.

“You still haven't gotten back to my revenue levels,” Seto said.

“We're very close. Another month and we'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming.”

Putting down the paper, Seto said, “And what's the purpose of showing this to me?”

“You haven't asked in a while, and I'm sure not knowing what is going on has been bothering you. So there's the proof that KC is in tip-top shape, or at least, will be next month.”

It would be three times that long until Seto's birthday and another visit with Mokuba. After about five months locked away, Seto didn't know if he could take another five months without seeing Mokuba. One visit every few months wouldn't cut it. The pictures and occasional video weren't enough.

“Did you bring another picture of Mokuba?”

Pegasus grinned. “I managed a video this time. Come, sit.”

Seto did and Pegasus opened the hatch again. He kept it open with a hand while pressing his phone to the glass, where the video had already started to play.

“ _This is my room_ ,” Mokuba said as the camera focused on him. He had a notebook in his hands and was clearly reading from it. “ _As you can see, it is decorated to my stupid, tasteless tastes._ ” Here he glared at Pegasus before making a large sweeping gesture with his hand. “ _Have a look, Kaiba-boy—I don't call him that you know._ ”

“ _Stick to the script or you won't get your chocolate._ ”

Mokuba rolled his eyes, even visible on the small screen, and continued. “ _But we can't go in your room oh favorite big brother of mine. No sir—I don't call him sir either—that's a secret for later on. So stop being so nosy and just follow me._ ”

Taking a deep breath, Mokuba turned around to walk to a living area where Seto could see a kitchenette on the far wall. While he wasn't reading the script, Seto said, “Why did you write his lines?”

“He refuses to talk to the camera. So I bribed him with candy and he agreed so long as I picked what he would say.”

“ _Here is the living room where I do most of my best living. Apparently I like to spend more time out here than in my bedroom that I was so graciously allowed to decorate because our admirable host chose these decorations._ ”

The script was exactly what Seto would have predicted Pegasus to write, but all of Mokuba's little huffs and eye rolls were far more interesting. It would be Mokuba who agreed to do something so ridiculous for candy, although it was likely that he just wanted to talk to Seto, even in such an impractical way.

“ _I keep my easels here by the window because I don't paint very good landscapes and need all the practice I can get—bite me—so I spend my days contemplating the ocean and the tides, and my nights staring up at the moon overhead. Perhaps one day soon I can share my spot with you._ ”

That part drew a slight frown from Mokuba, but he shook his head and kept going. “ _I have hung several of my better works around the rooms, and my favorites, or the favorites that matched the mood of your bedroom as so eloquently explained by our host, are hanging on your walls. We will have to wait to see those._ ”

Mokuba paused to turn the page, taking an extra few seconds, likely to read over the next part. The hand not on the notebook flexed at his side, and Seto watched it rather than Mokuba's face. It flexed five times, each time stretching out a little differently from the last. Mokuba didn't form the letters entirely, but enough that Seto could make out the message.

H-u-r-r-y

“ _And over here is a desk, and not just any desk, but a grand desk. Just look at this piece of furniture. Can't you imagine all the work a person could complete while sitting at this testament to human ingenuity?_ ”

It just looked like a normal desk through the phone's camera lens, but Seto found Mokuba's reaction to the sentence more enlightening. He tapped his finger on the page and said, “ _I'm not skipping across the room._ ”

“ _But little Mokuba, just imagine the brightness it would bring to your brother's day!_ ”

“ _I said no. We'll go to the kitchen then._ ”

“ _You're no fun sometimes._ ”

“ _And this is our glorious—_ ” Mokuba spoke the word slowly to put air quotes around it. “ _—kitchen. It comes fully stocked so I no longer have to wait on meals. I can just cook them whenever. Oh, the despair of being so young and inexperienced in the culinary arts. That's ridiculous. I've made you dinner._ ”

“ _Please, those were hardly legitimate meals._ ”

“ _I'm not some spoiled rich kid. I know how to cook. I'll make a list and you bring me the stuff. I'll prove it._ ”

“ _You're deviating from the script._ ”

“ _Fine. I'm a crappy cook and our wonderfully gracious host is too much of a prick to just eat it and be nice like the general population._ ”

“ _Not in the script. Certainly you don't want me to show your brother a video of you being rude?_ ”

“ _Show him. Don't. Whatever. This is stupid._ ”

Pegasus started smiling at that point and Seto realized that he was as well. He guessed that Pegasus had gotten well-acquainted with Mokuba's defense mechanisms in the past months and spotted them just as easily as Seto could.

Which was irritating and undeserved.

“ _You only have three lines left. Surely you can finish those._ ”

“ _Oh Kaiba-boy—again, Seto—I am so excited, abundantly and immersively—is that even a word?—excited for you to come up here and see your new room. I plan to decorate every inch of this space for Halloween—I don't want cobwebs all over my things—and will send you pictures then._ ”

Mokuba paused and looked at the page for a long moment, then up at the camera. “ _I love you._ ”

The video ended on a shot of Mokuba's face, almost appearing neutral to the uninformed. Pegasus pocketed his phone and stood, but Seto didn't move. He replayed the image of Mokuba's hand, calling out for help in the only way that he could. Seto couldn't do anything. He didn't know how to start.

“Hopefully next time he will chose to talk to you in his own words rather than mine. That all sounded a bit inauthentic, don't you think?” Pegasus asked, then added, “Well, almost all of it.”

“You can't watch that and tell me you think he is doing okay.”

“I think he is doing as well as can be expected. He thought you would be up there by now.”

“Day one,” Seto said with a glance to the bottom corner of the glass, “You said a year or two. Then you decided that it might be less time. Where do I stand?”

“You're progressing,” Pegasus said. “That's about all I can say on the matter.”

“You once asked me to put myself in your shoes to get a better view on the situation. How do you expect me to be dealing with this?”

Pegasus took his seat, so Seto got up only to walk to the back on the room and sit on the floor there, using the wall as a backrest. He crossed a leg over the other and held Pegasus's gaze, even though it meant looking up at him.

“We've discussed this before.”

“I mean now, after five months isolated and imprisoned with you alone for company. How am I supposed to be doing?”

A few seconds rolled by.

“Dependent,” Pegasus said. “You're supposed to be dependent.”

“On you?”

Seto reached up to the table beside him and grabbed the stress ball. He hadn't been so keen on tossing it lately, but had started to pick away at the foam in a perfect circle aiming for the center. Once he finished the hole, he could always go back to throwing it off the wall.

“I know it's not your favorite idea—”

“Astute observation.”

“Are we back into a petty phase?”

“You were there. You saw the video. Mokuba's not okay and I can't do a thing about it. I've done everything I can think of to get you to trust me and I'm still in here. Why am I still in here?”

“You don't trust me.”

“Effort doesn't count for anything?”

“I said you were progressing, didn't I?”

Taking off his glasses, Seto held them in the same hand as the stress ball so he could rub his eyes. He was actually tired. The longer he stayed in the room, the more he slept each night, the more he wanted to sleep. Seto guessed he was up to eight hours or so, but the only way to tell would be to start counting again, and he didn't have the energy for it.

“You have the funds and the manpower to move me upstairs if you wanted to,” Seto said. He put his glasses back on. “Switch out the door to whatever room you have waiting for me with a glass one.”

“This doesn't work that way.”

“Why? Because you own my life and are therefore allowed to do whatever you want with it?”

“Would that answer make you happy?”

Flicking a piece of the foam away from him, Seto shook his head. “There is one very easy way to make me happy.”

“Anti-depressants?”

Seto resisted the urge to flip him off because he wasn't sure if that fell under the no-profanity category. The music was repetitive and often more irritating than comforting, but it beat the quiet.

“I want to stay with Mokuba. If being your friend is what that takes, sign me up.”

“I don't know if you're used to friendship. I'm guessing not, but it isn't just me getting to know you. You've got to try getting to know me.”

Seto considered it for a few seconds. “Okay, is the point of this friendship,” he paused to find a non-insulting word, but came up short and had to go with the simplest solution, “—stuff to make it easier on us or because you actually want it?”

Pegasus shifted in his chair, crossing his legs the other way.

“Mostly to make it easier on everyone,” he said.

“And what if I said that would make it harder for me?”

“It won't make it harder, Kaiba-boy.”

Said the man on the other side of the glass, the one who hadn't been kidnapped. “I know myself better than you do,” Seto said. “I don't like the idea of friendship.”

Pegasus laughed. “That's ridiculous. Everyone needs a friend.”

“I don't.”

“Oh,” Pegasus said, and Seto heard his tone drop into one befitting a dramatic monologue. “Of course the brave Seto Kaiba doesn't need anyone but the precious, darling Mokuba. After all, blood comes first and is a binding covenant from one person to another. Who shall you trust if not your blood?”

“You could try a little harder too. Obviously I'm not going to be inclined toward friendship if you act like that any time you disagree with me.”

“I could try harder?” Pegasus asked. His lips lifted before he laughed. “If I tried any more I might shatter into pieces. You're forgetting that I'm under no obligation to try. I'm doing this willingly when even you recognize that it would be easier if I just killed you. Accept me for who I am or stay in there forever.”

“Then I have a question,” Seto said. It wasn't like Pegasus could stop him from asking without leaving, but it felt important enough that it needed an introduction. Seto gave Pegasus the needed time to prompt the question before asking, “Do you want me to end up with Mokuba? That's actually what you want?”

“Absolutely.”

“Why? If this is a punishment for Duelist Kingdom, then it would be more fitting to keep us separated.”

“I know what he means to you and I know what you mean to him. You forget that I've seen into your head, held your souls, felt the connection you two share.” He paused and checked his watch, although it was too early for the time to be over. “And I know what it's like to be separated from a person you feel so strongly about. At least he's there waiting for you.”

Seto set down the ball and reached up to the bed for the pillow so he wouldn't need to sit directly on the concrete any longer. He picked up the ball again to continue ripping off pieces. Seto's gaze stayed down so he didn't have to meet Pegasus's eye.

“Could you really have brought her back?”

“We'll never know.”

“What's stopping you from trying again?” Seto said, lifting his face enough that Pegasus appeared under the frame of his glasses.

Pegasus tapped the curtain of hair over his eye. “I lack the proper tools. Besides, those items are finicky. I can't use them without winning them and you know better than anyone that fate has written our Yugi-boy as the everlasting, undefeatable hero.”

“Let him win all the items. He likes being the driving force behind every victory.”

“She isn't coming back, Seto. Choose a new subject.”

Seto picked off a few more pieces from the moon and gave it more attention than Pegasus, who was right and didn't deserve to hear Seto admit to that. While Seto didn't mind discussing getting back to Mokuba, at least that option was there. He understood why Pegasus chose to avoid the subject.

“I don't know—” Seto stopped because he didn't like admitting that there was something he didn't know. So he rephrased it before continuing, “How am I supposed to get to know you?”

“Asking questions is usually the best way to go about that.”

Asking questions was too personal. The thought alone made Seto cringe, like he overstepped a boundary with a single thought. Maybe it was because getting to know Seto was a right reserved only for Mokuba, so he turned that around on everyone else. He didn't want to make a connection with Pegasus. They knew plenty about each other.

He couldn't imagine voluntarily going back to something as tasteless as that favorites game.

Seto picked a simple subject that he knew he could tie back into something that held his own interest. “When did you start painting?”

Pegasus smiled. “Very young. While I wish that I could say my first memory was holding a paintbrush, it was actually tugging on Mother's hair. But the painting came soon after.”

“You're good,” Seto said, grasping for something else to add to the conversation which had started dying after the first question. “You must have taken lessons.”

“From the moment I could write my name. They called me a prodigy, which, let's be honest, was a perfectly fitting description of my talents. I got into my first gallery at fifteen.”

“Do you still paint?”

“Occupationally. The times I've painted with Mokuba are the most I've spent in recreation in years.”

Seto shifted, uncomfortable as he had ever been talking to someone, and kept staring at the stress ball. Their time had to expire soon and put an end to this.

“Why not recreationally?”

“You might call it a lack of inspiration. I'm obligated, you see, to come up with new prints for I2, but there's nothing requiring my attention outside of the boardroom.”

“Do you have my deck?” Seto asked. He knew that it probably seemed like he was switching the subject just for the sake of it, but he actually wanted to know. He was fairly certain that Pegasus had it, since Seto wouldn't have gone to a dueling convention without it on hand, just in case. Asking after hadn't seemed worthwhile before. It was like Pegasus had said; this wasn't a game and Seto couldn't win his way out.

“I do. Would you like it back?”

“If you ever put me somewhere near Muto, yes.”

“Convinced you could win?”

With a little scoff, Seto said, “He can't always get so lucky.”

“I might like to see that duel. But until then, I don't mind bringing yours down. Yugi-boy has his.”

“I'm not going to spend my days staring at the cards. Unless you want to let me duel my way out of here, you can keep them for now.”

“That's a very lax attitude about cards I know you searched worldwide for.”

It was, and Seto kept picking at the stress ball so Pegasus couldn't see his face. If he was willing to bring down the cards, then they were probably fine. Telling Pegasus to hold on to them like he had been for almost half a year might be interpreted as trust.

“I'm sure they are fine where they are,” Seto said. “Although if you don't want them, Mokuba might for sentimental reasons.”

As casually as he could, Seto glanced up to see how Pegasus was taking the conversation. There was a brightness to his expression that Seto hadn't seen before, but Seto wasn't sure what he needed to attribute it to. It was bright, although not necessarily happy.

“Our time for tonight is just about up. Anything else you'd like to discuss?”

“You let Mokuba go outside for his birthday.”

“I'm not letting you—”

Seto cut him off by shaking his head. “Does that mean you're going to give me a present for mine?”

“I have something in mind. You'll love it.”

“I'll love it or the fictional version of me you've determined exists will love it?”

“You will. I'm very good at giving gifts, Kaiba-boy. Don't doubt that.”

Seto set down the ball rather than answer, because he had decided to stop voicing his doubts regarding Pegasus. He would find out when the day came, and hopefully, when he got to see Mokuba again. Even if that was his only present, it was all he wanted.

“Well, Kaiba-boy, I have to run. Good night.”

Pegasus picked up Seto's old plate and moved the chair back into its regular position. Seto stayed on the floor while he watched Pegasus leave, relieved to find the lights left on.


	22. Chapter 22

By the beginning of August, Seto knew more about Pegasus than he had ever wanted to. The information all seemed trivial, but Pegasus delighted in revealing all the littlest of details. Nothing felt important enough for Seto to commit it to memory, so he didn't bother. He simply came up with questions and let Pegasus ramble.

Seto waited for Pegasus to come by with dinner while looking through the pictures he had collected of Mokuba. He preferred the videos, but Pegasus still only allowed him to watch them once, and was somehow still convinced that Seto could use any form of technology to break out of the room, which ruled out giving Seto a camera with the videos saved.

He didn't know how to hurry to Mokuba any faster than he was. Pegasus refused to trust him and asking to be let out again would make all efforts over the past month worthless. Pegasus would never agree at Seto's request, only at his own decision.

Seto still believed that Pegasus planned to keep him trapped for the rest of his life, however long that would be, but when Pegasus visited, Seto kept his thoughts just that—thoughts. He couldn't voice doubt. The only way for Pegasus to start trusting Seto was for Seto to first demonstrate trust in Pegasus.

So to remind himself of that before Pegasus showed up again, Seto flipped from picture to picture. If Pegasus didn't want to trust Seto, Seto had to change his mind.

“Feeling nostalgic?” Pegasus asked after turning on the intercom.

“Has it been long enough for nostalgia?”

“Well,” Pegasus said, passing through Seto's dinner and turning around for the laundry basket he had brought down. “I'd say it varies based on person.”

“Then no."

Seto stood and set the pictures back on the top shelf. Pegasus handed over Seto's change of clothes, so Seto went ahead and carried them into the bathroom to change, bringing out the old set once finished.

“Who does the laundry for you?” Seto asked. He moved away from the glass after grabbing his plate, sitting up at the head of the bed to put the plate on the side table, stacked on top of some textbooks. The number of them had grown to the point that they couldn't all fit onto one shelf, but spilled over onto another.

“I have a housekeeper, a castlekeeper? No, housekeeper's much better.”

“Wouldn't it be easier to send someone else down with the laundry?”

Pegasus laughed and claimed his seat. “Since when is any of this easy?”

“None of it is?”

“Not a single portion. You'd think that after five months, we would have plateaued on the constant bickering, the attitudes, the rebellions. Even my good ones are becoming fussy.”

Seto much preferred that trail of conversation than attempting to come up with more questions about Pegasus's childhood or hobbies. None of the information was useful, but neither was knowing Pegasus preferred the fall or that he took care of a stray cat when he was nine.

“Have you moved any of the others?”

Pegasus's face lit up. “Why Kaiba-boy. I didn't think you cared.”

“I need a break from asking about you.”

The honesty received a nod, and Pegasus crossed his legs, settling in. Seto went ahead and pulled the blanket up over his feet to settle himself. The conversations had gotten harder. Not topics-wise, but mentally. He couldn't lose himself in the exchanges, let anything slip, let himself lapse into believing his lies.

“Little Mokuba is coping with the move. I don't know why we bothered painting your room because every inch of wall will be covered in canvas by the time he's through. He's insisting on cooking his own meals—if you recall, I mentioned the wing having its own kitchen—and sometimes, if he is feeling generous, he'll make enough for me as well.”

Seto nodded. If the last video had been an indication, Mokuba was still playing Pegasus. He benefited from naturally gaining Pegasus's trust, his age and disposition the largest factors there. He had enough of Pegasus's trust to have gained some freedoms, but Seto didn't know how long he could hold the act.

“And Muto?”

“He's very quiet. I've considered moving him a lot in recent days, but there's just something about the way he looks at me that I can't quite place. It could just be depression. I don't know. But we're both aware how strategic he can be.”

“I wouldn't have expected him to get depressed,” Seto said. Even if he was supposed to believe that his rival was a spirit living in a necklace, Yugi off the dueling field wasn't weak-hearted. He should have held out better and longer than a few months.

“I had to lock his Puzzle away, which seems to have removed his access to his companion inside. You and I both understand how difficult it is to part with a piece of your soul.”

“I'm not down here moping about it.”

“Weren't you just looking through pictures of little Mokuba? He doesn't even have a picture.”

“He's got a mirror.”

With a slight roll of his eye, Pegasus dismissed the comment. “Where was–oh yes. Yugi-boy's depressed and still in his original room. Our darling Téa on the other hand has been in her upgraded suite for a few weeks now.”

“Mokuba and I are going to be roommates,” Seto said, because it was going to happen. “Does Gardner get one too?”

Pegasus lifted a shoulder. “I've been debating it. Is it inappropriate to room a lady with a gentleman?”

“They're all adults.”

“We're not having that discussion. Who else, hm, Mr. Wheeler is still fighting back. Relentlessly, in fact. I swear that boy will kill himself.”

Seto leaned forward a bit, for once actually interested in hearing about Wheeler. “You don't have precautions in place to prevent that?”

“You have a razor. I couldn't stop you if you wanted to.”

“But you want us alive.”

“I do.”

“Wouldn't allowing us to kill ourselves defeat the purpose of all this?”

Seto couldn't hear the sigh, but he saw it leave Pegasus's chest. “Do we have to discuss the potential for any of you to kill yourself? Yes, I would be upset should it happen. But it wouldn't change anything with the others.”

“I'm not going to,” Seto said. “Just curious.”

“Ah yes. Don't want to follow in your father's footsteps.”

“That's a good place to end this topic.”

“I figured it might be. Our Ryou is, unfortunately, unmoved. I think I have something in mind for that, but I don't want to get ahead of myself.”

Seto didn't know what Pegasus meant by that, but decided against questioning it. He was already getting more information than he expected, and Pegasus had frowned when he brought it up. Ever since that night when Bakura had ran across Seto, Pegasus flinched at any subjects relating to Bakura.

“Devlin?”

“His stay in his current room will remain indefinite.”

Seto thought better of asking, but did regardless.

“Once I'm moved upstairs with Mokuba, you'll only have six stops, less if you pair up the others. It won't be seven people, seven days anymore.”

“No,” Pegasus said, slouching to rest his jaw on his palm, arm propped on his crossed knees. “You'll still get the same time though. And going back for Tristan would only set off alarms and reignite the search. Maybe in a few years.”

Seto had to look away at the notion of years spent on the island. Years of dealing with Pegasus, of constantly being on guard, trying not to say the wrong thing, the final thing that would set him off. Years of worrying about Mokuba at every moment. Years caught up in a game he had no desire to play.

“And if someone asked you to describe how I'm doing?”

“They do ask, and they all get the same answer. You're trying.”

“I'm really not going to attack you.”

“You're not ready.”

Seto reached over to the dinner plate to grab a celery stick. He broke it in half before taking a bite, wishing it was so easy to break Pegasus.

“Do you still hate me?” Pegasus asked.

Seto nodded.

Pegasus shook his head and chuckled. His eye closed as the smile faded, and Seto waited for his response, having to give it several seconds before, “I can't tell if you're just that good at lying or if you are too tired to do anything but tell the truth.”

“Both.”

“This is exhausting, isn't it? At least you don't have to make the rounds twice a day.”

Seto shrugged. “I would if it got me out of this room.”

“You'll get out in time. Was there anything else you wanted to know about the others?”

“Wanted to know?” Seto shook his head. But talking about them meant not talking about Pegasus, so he asked, “Anything interesting?”

“I doubt you'll find their lives interesting. They wouldn't think much of yours.”

The phrasing made Seto frown, but he looked past it. Pegasus didn't mean it how it sounded, or if he did, he was looking for a reaction.

“Doesn't it bother you not to have free time anymore?”

“Oh no. I sleep very little, so I still have a while alone once you lot nod off.”

Pegasus's lack of free time had been his reasoning for not learning how to play chess on his own, but insisting Seto teach him. The lessons improved Pegasus's ability to carry on the matches for more than a dozen moves, but Seto would rather not have to continue talking him through the rules and strategies.

“I thought you said we got every minute of your spare time.”

“I've allotted seven hours for you all to sleep each night. During those hours, I consider you off-limits. You know, unless your appendix ruptures or something.”

“So you need all of us here,” Seto said, reaching for another piece of celery to tame his following sentence. “Okay. But I don't get you wanting us here. We're taking up your time, resources, your space.”

“That's true.”

“What do you get out of that? If keeping us here is the closest you can get to making all this right, why not just have your housekeeper bring our meals? Why not install a mechanical system to send stuff to us, leave us alone?”

Pegasus sat back again, dropping his hand into his lap before adjusting his suit. “Do you want to be alone, Seto?”

Before, Seto would have said yes.

“No.”

“Neither do I.”

“I've said it before. I'm shit company.”

Pegasus leaned down to pick up the remote from the floor and clicked off the music. Seto would have been upset, but it had been a while since he had a break from the continual loop of elevator music. But he couldn't let it go without some sort of argument.

“That wasn't even directed at you.”

“Still counts.”

“And how will you punish me for cursing when I'm out of here?” Seto asked. He finished off the celery stick and reached for another. Eating in front of Pegasus hadn't been such a big deal recently. And if Seto could finish the meal while Pegasus was still there, the plate didn't have to stay in his room overnight.

“I haven't thought of it. Hopefully you'll have broken the habit by then.”

Seto took a bite to prevent himself from saying, “And if I don't?” because he didn't want to know. He would be around Mokuba once out of the room. Seto didn't make a habit of cursing around Mokuba, so it might not be a problem.

“Any other habits of mine you're looking to break?”

The comment caused Pegasus to fidget, casually, like he was trying to hide it. He opened his mouth once before speaking, closed it, and then tried again.

“I'm not looking to break you, Kaiba-boy. But you do need to calm down the aggression. This is a good start.”

“It's not that aggressive,” Seto said, although now that he put it in context, he could see how cursing would keep him in the room longer. Pegasus wanted the aggression tamed. Fine. Seto would stop with anything that might be considered profanity.

He'd try. Pegasus had a bad knack for drawing it out of him.

Seto continued picking at the food while waiting for Pegasus to suggest a new subject. The last several hadn't been particularly safe, but they'd gotten through them without triggering anything. The closest had been the subject of being alone. Seto logged that one away as a topic to avoid in the future.

“When did you intend on retiring?” Pegasus asked.

“I didn't intend on it.”

“Ever? I find that hard to believe. Everyone has retirement plans.”

“I enjoyed working.”

_Past tense, like I'm not planning to go back to it._

It would have been easy to play up how miserable Seto would be if he had to spend his life idle, but what did that matter to Pegasus? Seto was a prisoner. The books, the music, the limited and unwanted company were all luxuries in Pegasus's mind. Seto's life had already been forfeited.

“Have you ever considered writing a book?”

Seto couldn't stop his lips from lifting the slightest amount. “I haven't.”

“You might be good at it. Want me to bring you down some writing supplies?”

“I'll take anything you want to bring down that isn't a book.”

The cup of water had been emptied, so without announcing it to Pegasus, Seto picked it up and headed for the bathroom to refill it. While the water ran, as cold as the tap would go, Seto took a few settling breaths and told himself that the night was almost over. Pegasus would go and Seto could sleep, and even though he would wake up to the exact same day tomorrow, it would be another day closer to getting upstairs.

He cut off the tap and carried the water back to his side table.

“Anything?”

“That's what I said,” Seto said, reclaiming his seat.

“You like to throw out those 'anythings,' don't you? What if I decided to put a cat in there with you?”

“A cat isn't a thing.”

Pegasus waved a hand. “You're getting bogged on the details. Would you decline a pet if I were to put one in there?”

“Would you give me the necessary items to take care of it?”

“I'm not a monster. And I'm not actually putting an animal in there with you. Just so you know. We're back to hypothetical land,” Pegasus said, but his body language read as invested. He no longer leaned back, but sat up straight, inclined forward enough that Seto could see it from several feet away.

“I don't know.”

“I assumed you would shoot down the idea without a second thought.”

“It wouldn't be the worst thing you could do.”

“That's incredibly interesting,” Pegasus said. “Do you even like animals?”

“I don't."

“But you would allow one to live with you? To share your space? Invade your homeland?”

Seto controlled his breathing and reminded himself that he had to put up with this man. It wasn't an option anymore. If he wanted to ramble about senseless subjects, Seto wouldn't stop him. If he wanted to define the tight space as Seto's homeland, Seto couldn't say a word contrary.

“I said I didn't know if I would.”

“Which isn't a no. I'm really, truly baffled by this development.”

“Fine. Then no. Even hypothetically, I don't want a pet.”

Pegasus wasn't finished being amused. “I have all these mental images now of you playing with a cat, or refilling its water bowl, or—” here he paused to burst into laughter, clutching his stomach in what had to be exaggerated expression. “—can you imagine it sleeping on your chest? All curled up while you pet it? I may have to get you a cat.”

“And how would you suggest changing the litter in here?”

The conversation ended and moved on to the next without another word.

“Did you end up saying if you wanted to try writing a book?” Pegasus asked.

“I said I would take whatever you'll bring down.”

A smile. “You said anything.”

“Are you really going to deviate onto this again?”

“No—” he raised his hands as if to stop himself from travelling back down that conversation trail. “No. I'll bring down some writing supplies. But if you do write a book, I call dibs on first reader.”

“I'm not going to write a book.”

“We've got a long road ahead of us, Kaiba-boy. We'll see.”


	23. Chapter 23

"Good afternoon, Kaiba-boy."

"Pegasus."

"Do you mind if I turn the music down for a bit?"

Seto didn't know how much of that question was actually a request and how much was asking for the sake of etiquette, but he nodded and put his book on top of the notebook Pegasus brought down a few weeks before. He hadn't done any writing in it, but doodled design sketches for upgrades to his products. If Pegasus had his way, Seto would never see KaibaCorp again, but Seto's mind still worked tirelessly and putting the ideas to paper helped him think more clearly.

"You always talk over it," Seto said.

"I would like your full attention on what I'm about to ask."

Coffee in Pegasus's hands usually indicated a bribe and Seto sensed today was no different. Pegasus rolled back his shoulders and rubbed his lips together several times, both hands on the mug.

"I'd like our conversation to be the center of attention today. No distractions and all that."

Seto nodded to get the coffee, which came after Pegasus reached for the remote to turn off the music. They went through the normal routine of Seto taking the coffee if there was one and moving to sit on the edge of his bed, while Pegasus took the chair.

"You've got fifteen minutes," Seto said like he came up with the schedule.

"Yes, of course. I have a, well, a favor to ask of you."

The coffee burned Seto's tongue, but he took another sip anyway. "A favor?"

"A particular favor. I understand that asking is a bit inappropriate, but I'm running out of options."

So it was something important. Maybe KaibaCorp, but Seto decided against the idea almost immediately. Pegasus acted too uneasy for this to have been a business discussion, leaving just the matter of his prisoners. Mokuba, something might be wrong with Mokuba.

"Well?"

"Well first," Pegasus said, crossing his legs and interlocking his fingers. "If you will help me with something, I swear on whatever you'd like me to that you will get to spend your birthday with Mokuba. Yes, not half an hour, but the full day. And, I'll bring you coffee with every meal for a week if you'd like, although the withdrawal afterward can't be much worth it."

"You're bribing me."

"As well as I can."

"What's the favor?" Seto said, taking another sip.

Pegasus uncrossed his legs before shaking his head and recrossing them the same way they had been. He folded his hands in his lap before sliding them up to his knees. "You would be helping me by freeing up some of my time and resources for a week."

"I'm not working for you."

Shaking his head, Pegasus said, "No, nothing like that. But, what I'm asking isn't going to be easy or pleasant. I'm fairly certain that you will hate doing it, should you agree. Oh, and you're under no obligation to agree. I won't hold it against you if you refuse."

This time, Seto stayed quiet and focused on finishing his coffee. Whatever Pegasus had to say would come after a long introduction, or at least, it seemed that way to Seto. Interrupting would just delay the main point, which Seto was growing increasingly interested in. It didn't sound as though Pegasus wanted to ask for the favor. But if it was within Seto's power, he knew he would end up doing whatever it turned out to be, not just for a full day with Mokuba, but for whatever trust it would gain. A day with Mokuba was great; moving up with him would be better.

"But anyway, I need for you to-" here Pegasus paused in search of a word, but the pause lengthened to the point he must have decided to say something else entirely. "-It would be a great help if I could put someone in there with you for the week."

Seto had been about to take another sip, but lowered the mug so Pegasus could see the full extent of his confusion. He had thought that the point of all this was isolation, for Pegasus and Seto to stay one-on-one. That was why he had said Seto couldn't stay with Mokuba yet, because they would start to ignore Pegasus.

"Why?"

Pegasus seemed as surprised as Seto. He might have expected "who" or a quick "no," but more than those questions, Seto wanted to know why the favor was so dramatic. Seto was bored and hadn't had company other than Pegasus in a half a year – under an hour of total time with Mokuba hardly counted – and wouldn't mind having someone around, if just as another noise maker. Other people meant more information.

"I'm getting another space ready for him-" So not Téa. "-and thought I'd give him a break from his current situation. Your room is the most secure and you are the most capable."

Pegasus briefly tilted his head before adding, "Besides, his birthday is next week."

"I'm hardly a present."

"Trust me on this, Kaiba-boy. You are the best thing he could ask for."

Seto momentarily distracted himself with the coffee before asking, "So is it Wheeler or Bakura?"

"Our poor Ryou. As odd as it may sound, you'll be a nice vacation for him."

Giving his room a short glance, Seto had to wonder how bad Bakura's situation was. Words about Bakura escaping  _again_ and having to be relocated came to mind, and after having been in the dungeons, he couldn't think of what might have been worse.

But even after telling Seto the favor, Pegasus didn't relax.

"Tell me the rest of it," Seto said. It could have had to do with the personality shifts, but even after going half a year with no exercise, Seto knew he could handle himself. Pegasus would have someone monitoring in case anything happened.

"You're aware of the spirit who sometimes possesses him?"

"I'm aware he has multiple personalities," Seto said. Pegasus smirked.

"Sure, you little skeptic. Then you know that his other  _personality_  is prone to violence and is particularly adept at escaping?"

With the coffee finished, Seto reached forward to set it on the floor, then slid over to lean against the wall. It was cold and the chill worked through the thin material of his sleeve, but Seto ignored it in favor of the conversation.

"If I can't get out of here, neither can he."

Pegasus's head tilted again, which Seto was starting to see as a sign of his anxiety. Every time he did it, Seto expected a shocking horror to follow, like Pegasus was just waiting to drop the worst of the news.

"That's true. But because of his proclivity toward violence, he has to stay in a straitjacket."

_Oh._

"He can't take care of himself," Seto said.

"No, Kaiba-boy. He can't."

Seto let out a heavy breath and stared at Pegasus, waiting for him to start giggling and reveal that he had been joking. What he was asking was much more than just a favor. It was putting another life into Seto's hands and the responsibility of maintaining someone else's health. It was waiting on someone for every need. Bakura couldn't do anything on his own without the use of his arms.

"And you can say no. I understand that I'm asking a lot and I don't have that much to offer in return at this point in time, but-"

Pegasus was putting one of the lives he claimed to own into Seto's hands.

"I'll do it."

That was the first show of trust Seto believed.

"You'll what?"

"I'll do it."

Pegasus stood and took the step needed to get to the glass. "That easily? I expected you to at least barter a bit more."

"I have my terms," Seto said, just to see what he could get away with.

"Ah, of course. The conditional acceptance. I suppose I should have seen it coming. Name your price and do keep in mind your situation."

Because Pegasus stood, Seto did as well. But rather than walk up to the glass, he went over to the wall by his bookshelf to rest back against it, crossing his arms and propping a foot on top of the other.

"The two things you already mentioned, Mokuba and the coffee. Of course to accommodate for two people in a space this size, you'll obviously need to bring more blankets and pillows since there isn't enough room for a cot or a mattress. An additional cup, toothbrush, and razor, of course."

"Of course."

Seto raised his chin to the ceiling like he was thinking it over. "An extra set of clothing, two if you're feeling magnanimous, and that does include socks. Not colorful, no characters or pictures on them. And," Seto said, dragging out the word because he had saved the best for last. "-When that wall comes up, I want to walk the length of the hallway you're in, glasses on."

The list wasn't much, not considering what Seto could have asked for. Pegasus handing over a prisoner for a week was extreme, so Seto's list of demands could have equaled to it. But he knew Pegasus's limit and asking to step out of the room pushed at it.

"Define hallway," Pegasus said.

"Straight shot, no turns. From where you are standing to either end."

"And what could you possibly get out of that?"

"The ability to walk for more than ten steps. This room is small and that hallway has to be long enough that I can at least stretch."

"And you understand that you would actually have to take care of him, not just-"

"I understand."

Pegasus stepped over so he was closer to Seto. His typical amusement was gone, but now excessively serious, more so than normal, although not the angry sort of serious that Seto had seen in recent months. This was more of a business transaction, like back before when Pegasus and Seto had worked together on the duel arenas. Before Pegasus ruined everything by kidnapping Mokuba.

"Then you know that this isn't going to be easy. And like I said before, it isn't very pleasant."

"Arguing after I've accepted is counterproductive."

"I know that I'm asking a lot and want to make sure that you are aware of the full extent of what you are accepting."

"Do you need to make up a consent form for me to sign? I agree to the terms and conditions. I waive my right to complain if I'm not enjoying the company."

"Then I agree to your terms as well," Pegasus said. "But when you do your little hallway walk, there will be other people here, and they will be armed. As much as I don't want to hurt you, Kaiba-boy, I will if you prompt it."

"When will you bring him over?"

"Tomorrow. His time and your time are connected, so we'll have three hours to get everything done. Then I can be around while you two are getting adjusted."

"You said this was partly for his birthday?"

"Yes, a week from today. So long as you aren't backing out of this agreement, I guess that we'll go from one Saturday to the next."

Seto nodded. As much as he hated the idea of taking care of someone in a straitjacket, he knew the benefits were too much to pass up. He needed the trust that came with it, and this had to be a substantial amount. And it guaranteed spending a day with Mokuba. The socks were fairly high on his priority list as well, because being barefoot for six months had gotten old.

"Am I going to be dealing with Bakura's angry half?" Seto asked.

"Hopefully not. You've seen that necklace he wears, the Ring? So long as he doesn't have that, you will only be dealing with poor Ryou."

"Then take the necklace from him and he won't need the straitjacket."

Pegasus's head inclined again. "I'm afraid that isn't the case. This Ring has a nasty habit of finding its way to him, no matter where it is and no matter where he is."

"How is that possible?" Seto asked.

Pegasus lifted a hand to wave his fingers. "Magic."

"So what happens if this necklace  _magically_  appears while he's in here?"

Pegasus kicked down toward the hatch door. "I'll leave this unlocked. The Ring should fit through if you use an angle. Toss it as far away as you can."

The solution was ridiculous, but about what Seto should have expected. If this magical necklace actually could reappear, then tossing it a few feet away likely wouldn't solve their issue. "Fine," Seto said. He didn't have any other objections other than the absurdity of the magic.

"I expected a greater fight."

"What would you do with him if I said no?"

"I'm not actually sure. I counted all my chickens in the basket before I spoke to you."

"That isn't how the phrase goes."

"Sorry. My mind's a bit jumbled trying to make preparations for tomorrow. You know, counting towels and measuring out shampoo and the like."

The words, " _glad my company means so much to you_ " nearly slipped out, but Seto caught them back and held them and their bitterness. It wasn't the right message to get across at that moment, not when something actually engaging was happening for the first time in months.

Instead, Seto went with "Where are you moving him?"

"Somewhere a little nicer. I can't make another one of these rooms-" he knocked on the glass. "-because I have to be able to get to him and the Ring. Hopefully it will get him a little more self-sufficient."

"Is taking care of him that hard?" Seto asked, although what he really meant was something more along the lines of " _Are you bored of taking care of him?_ "

"He needs to be in a different space for his own sake, which wouldn't be an issue if that Ring just stayed put."

Pegasus sounded as sincere as a person could when talking through a speaker system and about a magical spirit. He looked sincere too, and Seto interpreted his fidgeting as a sign that he was uncomfortable with whatever was currently happening with Bakura. Seto hated this room, and for it to be an upgrade, and for Pegasus to ask the favor at all, it must have been terrible.

They spent the remainder of Seto's time slot taking inventory so Pegasus knew exactly what needed to be brought down to accommodate Seto's week-long roommate.

_A roommate._

He could do this. He had to do this.

* * *

"Good morning, Kaiba-boy. Are you ready to get started?"

Pegasus came into view, holding a basket, along with a handful of guards who carried a ladder. The wall was actually coming up and Seto was getting a roommate.

"I thought you might have backed out," Seto said.

"I forced myself to promise poor Ryou last night. No take-backs on that."

A few drops of water fell from Seto's hair down on his shoulders and the moisture made the room seem colder. He continued towel-drying his hair while the men worked to remove the duct.

"I'm going to say this in front you and in front of them. Gentlemen, should Seto do anything you deem to be an escape attempt, please take the appropriate measures to stop him."

"Did you tell them that I'm going to be walking the length of the hall?" Seto asked. He left the towel around his shoulders and watched as they worked. There were a few sprinkles of water on his glasses, but they would evaporate eventually. Keeping them smudge free had occupied a great amount of Seto's time. He should have asked for a lens cloth.

"They're aware. They'll tase you if you try anything. And if that doesn't work, they do have permission to shoot."

"To kill?"

"To maim. Although you do have arteries in your legs, so you might not want to take the risk."

Seto shook his head. He couldn't look after Bakura for a week if he ended up getting shot, so he took the threat as a scare tactic. Besides, a taser would stop him, at least long enough for the men to force him back into the fishbowl or for someone to take his glasses.

"I just want the exercise," Seto said.

The duct crinkled as it fell, hanging from the ceiling. The men sidestepped to avoid being hit by it. Once it stopped swinging, they grabbed the music player, and moved the ladder back.

"Walk first, then we'll set up the space, and then I'll get him. Clear?"

Seto nodded, and while Pegasus reached over to – press a button to open the wall? Seto still didn't know how the mechanism worked – lift the glass, he went back into the bathroom to hang up his towel. He assumed it would be in his best interest to act as indifferent as possible. While the threat of being shot didn't scare Seto, he knew that if Pegasus supposedly owned him, he had the supposed right to hurt him.

The wall couldn't raise entirely. It stopped inches short of the hatch door. It had to be designed that way to accommodate the handle for the hatch jutting out. It still ended out of arm's reach, but Seto kept his gaze on it for a few extra seconds, just getting used to seeing it lifted.

All of the guards glared at him like they expected him to make a run for the elevator. Seto gave them each the brief glance, wondering if wearing sunglasses was a requirement Pegasus had of all his employees, and then took the needed step to get into the hallway.

"Don't do anything stupid," Pegasus said.

"I never do."

He headed down away from the elevator first. It had to have been the direction Bakura came from and it made more sense after seeing the end of the hallway. It opened up to a staircase heading down, but no longer lit with the same style of lighting as the area outside Seto's room. The stairs must have descended to the dungeons, because of course Pegasus would chose electric torches to fit his aesthetic.

A guard waited at the top of the staircase and although it was still a straight shot, Seto decided not to argue it. There were other doors that he left alone to keep from aggravating Pegasus more than he already was.

Aside from the doors, Seto found nothing interesting on that end of the hall. He spun on his heel, hard to do barefoot on the stone flooring, and walked back toward Pegasus, stretching out his arms and pausing once to stretch his back.

"You can stretch like that in your room," Pegasus said.

"Of course I couldn't," Seto said.

He passed the guards holding the ladder and gave the wall by his room a glance. Three buttons, each a different color, were mounted to the wall where Pegasus always reached. One for the speaker, one to raise, and one to lower?

Seto kept moving in the direction of the elevator, where another guard waited. This guard had his hand on his taser, ridiculous, because if Seto wanted to escape, he would have gone for the stairs rather than potentially waiting on the elevator.

Tapping his fist against a door – there were three by the elevator – Seto turned and finished his first excursion from the glass cage that didn't involve a medical emergency. His steps were slow but eventually led him back to Pegasus.

"There. Happy?"

"Not really," Pegasus said, pointing back into the cage.

But for lack of a better option, Seto took a step back into his room. He almost chuckled when the sense of claustrophobia hit him again even though the glass was still raised. He had the minor consolation of having a while longer before the door was closed.

"Now, let's get this place set for two," Pegasus said. He picked up the basket and carried it toward Seto's bed, but set it on the floor. While they started replacing the sheets, the guards in the hallway formed a sentry line.

"I'm not trying to escape," Seto said.

"I'm not giving you a chance."

Seto tugged the corner of the sheet up enough that he could reach across to hook it over the edge of the mattress. He couldn't look in Pegasus's direction. Seeing him in the room was strange, and Seto's mind skidded every time he saw that image. So after attaching the sheet, Seto looked down to the basket to see if his extra clothing was in side.

It was.

Without asking permission, Seto grabbed them and carried them over to the bookshelf, which was all he had to use for storage. He put them on the shelf with the picture of Mokuba, the note, and the protein bars, covering the food. Pegasus had to know he stockpiled them, but it would be better not to draw attention.

"I got this foam mattress cover," Pegasus said. He turned to a guard and instructed him to go bring down the rest of the supplies. "I guess it will have to go on the floor here."

He indicated to where Seto stood on the floor in between the bed and the bookshelf. Seto nodded since it was the only stretch of floor available. There was enough space up against the glass, but the hatch was there, so getting food in and out would be more difficult with bedding in the way.

"You should probably let Ryou take the bed," Pegasus said.

"Fine."

Better, actually, since Bakura wouldn't be blocking the access to Seto's books. He could use the foot of the bed to get down, leaving Seto half of his space. He didn't want to draw the imaginary line down the display case, but Seto had already started sectioning it off. They had to share the space for a week, nothing more. Cordoning it off would be the safest option for Seto's sanity.

There were two towels in the basket as well, and Seto put them in the bathroom, bringing out his old one to be washed.

As Seto reached forward to toss the towel into the empty basket, Pegasus caught his hand, his right hand, the one that still had faint scabs on it.

"Let's talk about this."

"We already have."

"You can't have any outbursts like this with him in here," Pegasus said. He tightened his grip on Seto's wrist and refused to budge as Seto attempted to pull free.

"One time thing."

"I can't stop you from telling him," Pegasus said. "Although I'd appreciate you keeping silent on the matter."

"Let go of me."

Pegasus did and Seto stepped back so there wouldn't be any repeat performances. There wasn't much of a place to back away to, especially since Seto was avoiding the opening in the cage so the guards wouldn't shoot him.

"Why don't you want him to know?"

"Why didn't I want you to know? Look at what you did to yourself when you found out."

"He's restrained."

Pegasus picked up the basket and carried it out into the hall. Seto heard the elevator doors opening, turning his head in that direction although he couldn't see from his spot.

"Either way, it's probably best for him to figure it out on his own."

"I'll consider it," Seto said.

The guard had another basket in his hands and a bag over his shoulder. He dropped them by Pegasus, and although he wore sunglasses, Seto could feel the glare aimed at him, like it was Seto's fault he had to do the mundane task of carrying a comforter down the elevator.

"Here," Pegasus said, holding out the bag the guard brought down. "You can set up the bathroom while I get in here."

Pegasus was too calm, which made Seto think that he was masking his discomfort unnecessarily. As far as Seto knew, this would be the first time two of his  _visitors_  stayed together. Seto had information Bakura didn't, and Pegasus reeled with the horror of Seto letting something slip. Not even of slipping, but of Seto purposefully filling in Bakura on the secrets of their captivity.

The bag had refills for Seto's shampoo, conditioner, shaving cream, soap, and toothpaste. There was an extra toothbrush, razor, cup, and hairbrush for Bakura, and staring down at them, Seto thought about what it meant to take care of someone else. The two weeks in the infirmary had been the worst of Seto's time imprisoned, all because he had to let Pegasus wait on him. Now he was about to be Pegasus to someone else.

"All right, Kaiba. The bed's made. Make any adjustments you'd like. I'm off to collect Ryou."

Pegasus left Seto with the guards, so Seto went back to his bed and waited.


	24. Chapter 24

The elevator door opened and Seto sat up a little straighter. The movement made a guard reach for his gun and Seto shook his head in annoyance. Maybe they were used to people fighting back, although after this long, Seto couldn't imagine anyone putting up much of a fight.

Although Bakura had been around for a good portion of Seto's interactions with Yugi, Seto didn't remember him all that well. He had been one of those background figures, quiet, out of the way, unimportant. If he cheered against Seto like so many of the others had, Seto never heard it. The little details Seto remembered brought up someone conscience, put together, and clean.

Seto did not expect the state of Ryou Bakura.

_Brown_ , Seto thought. He confused himself in thinking it, but it was the first thing that came to mind. Noting Pegasus's hesitant expression came shortly after, but mostly, Seto was overwhelmed with the color brown.

"We'll be borrowing your shower for a few minutes," Pegasus said, reaching over to dim the lights in the hallway. He kept a hand on Bakura's eyes while leading him into Seto's room, through the bathroom entrance, and sliding the door closed behind them.

Seto hardly had the time to register the second straitjacket over Pegasus's shoulder because he was distracted by how small Bakura seemed. Not only in weight, which even under the bulk of the straitjacket, Seto could see was too thin, but his posture, hunched, defensive, terrified.

The shower turned on and Seto's sense of claustrophobia increased. While he hated the room, it always had the notable benefit of not having Pegasus inside. And all Seto wanted for the past half year was to have the glass raised and he couldn't even enjoy it while it was up. Somehow, his situation felt worse this way, probably something about the guards waiting for a reason to shoot.

One of them had produced a flashlight, keeping the beam settled on Seto.

Seto crossed his legs, rested an elbow on his knee, and rested his jaw on his palm, glaring at the closest guard, the one with the flashlight. His only motion came from his foot bouncing, although even that seemed like too much for the man Seto kept staring at. The idea that anyone could stand by and watch seven people be held hostage baffled him, especially now that he had seen Bakura. They were either paid excessively or enjoyed what they did.

There wasn't much to do while he waited for Pegasus to finish in the bathroom. The water stayed on for a long time, long enough for Seto to get uncomfortable and cross his legs the other way. Maybe twenty or thirty minutes later, the water stopped, but it took another fifteen or so before the sliding door opened.

With the brown gone, Bakura was back to a closer image of the memories Seto had of him. His hair was damp but white, and the straitjacket he had been wearing before was tossed out into the hallway, replaced by a clean one. The pants looked the same as Seto's and his feet were bare, his eyes squeezed shut. But once they were out of the direct light of the bathroom, Bakura's eyes relaxed, although stayed closed.

"This one is a little more heavy-duty," Pegasus said. "But there's a zipper at the collar that you can pull down enough should the Ring reappear, which Ryou will inform you of immediately should it happen."

Bakura nodded, rapidly, like agreeing was the most important thing to him.

"And he doesn't have the key. Should you talk to that spirit, inform him of that before anything else."

"He showers with that on then?" Seto asked.

"It will stand up to the water. It'll just take a bit longer to dry."

Seto stood because Bakura was going to be taking the bed. Pegasus got Bakura sitting almost as soon as Seto was up, then knelt down in front of him. "He's agreed to do whatever you need him to," Pegasus said, a hand on either of Bakura's knees. "Don't be shy and let me know if he isn't holding up to his end of the deal."

Bakura nodded, the movement weaker than before.

"And you," Pegasus said, turning up to Seto. "You have to uphold your end of this agreement for the entire week. No shortcuts, no getting around it. I'll take back all this stuff in a second."

The birthday was more important than any item, but Seto thought it fell into the description of "stuff."

"Can you think of anything else you may need?"

"Breakfast?" Bakura said. Seto hadn't remembered Bakura's voice, but now hearing it, recognized how wrong it was, too raspy, too soft, too terrified.

"Of course. I left the cart upstairs, so I'll run to grab it. Kaiba-boy will keep you company."

Pegasus gave Seto a sharp glare that seemed to say,  _I expect you to keep him company,_ before standing. From the way he straightened his suit, Seto wondered if he insisted on wearing them as a show of power. It wasn't like he needed to rub it in anymore to the boy in a straitjacket and the man behind the glass.

After Pegasus headed out, Bakura turned in Seto's direction and said, facing angled slightly off, "I'm very sorry about this."

The guards might tell Pegasus anything that was said, so Seto picked his words carefully. "It's not a favor."

"Well," Bakura said, more quietly this time, "Thanks anyways."

Seto nodded although Bakura couldn't see and stepped over to the wall by the bookcase, which usually was cornered with the glass. The guards tracked his motion, but said nothing to stop him. Seto had a better view of the hallway from this spot, so Pegasus couldn't sneak up on him as easily.

"I'll sleep on the floor," Bakura said.

"I'd rather."

"Okay."

Seto caught his foot as it bounced, and then crossed his arms to hide his injured hand as it clenched into a fist. He was ready for the guards to leave, for Pegasus to be gone for the afternoon, so he could actually get information from Bakura. Judging from the state of Bakura's arrival, his experience had been much different from Seto's.

Pegasus returned carrying two plates, leaving Seto to wonder after the cart he had mentioned.

"Same for both of you today. That means eat now, Kaiba-boy. Oh-" Pegasus paused to turn around. "-One of you go grab the coffee from the cart."

He handed Seto his plate first, which was warm to the touch. He set it on the bookshelf, which had much less space on it with all the recent additions. Pegasus gave him a curious glance after Seto set down the plate, but Seto ignored it, heading into the bathroom for his cup.

Seto filled up both of the cups since Pegasus didn't bring anything else down for Bakura. He supposed it would be a sign of good faith, that he was thinking enough to do something for Bakura while Pegasus was still in the room and without being prompted.

"Thank you," Pegasus said, taking the cup when Seto reentered into the room. He had sat beside Bakura on the edge of the bed, balancing the plate in his lap while feeding Bakura a bite at a time.

Bakura's face flushed deeper with each bite, so Seto turned to grab his plate again, sitting on the floor away from the makeshift bed and as far away from the scene on the actual bed as he could.

He picked at the food and sipped at the coffee once it was brought in, only eating because it was hot and letting the chicken get cold would make him want to eat it even less once Pegasus left. He took small bites to give himself something to do while waiting for Bakura to finish or maybe for Pegasus to finish. It was hard to judge who controlled the pace. He kept to himself while Pegasus and Bakura carried on with some mindless small talk – "You think you'll be okay? He isn't really so bad. Just let me know if anything comes up." – and made Seto feel out of place in the room assigned to him.

Seto didn't finish half the plate before Pegasus dropped the fork back onto Bakura's. He offered more water, which Bakura accepted, and Seto thought about how many times a day he took sips from his own cup.

"Okay, you two. Anything you think you might need before the wall comes down?"

Bakura shook his head, but Seto glanced around the room to see if anything had been overlooked in Pegasus's preparations. He didn't look long, because if Pegasus had forgotten something big, the wall could be opened again and getting Pegasus used to having the wall up would benefit Seto. And if he forgot something small, it could fit through the hatch or be done without.

Pegasus took Bakura's plate and set the cup on the floor, then checked with Seto to see if he had finished. He was done eating although half the food remained, so he handed the plate and fork up to Pegasus, then pulled his knees up once his lap was free.

"If there's nothing else, Kaiba-boy, I leave him to your care."

Pegasus stepped into the hallway, and Seto remained sitting so there was less temptation to run. He knew all the arguments for why he shouldn't, but it didn't make staying put any easier. He stared at his knees while the glass screeched down, and he could just barely see Bakura's bare feet rubbing against each other.

The glass hit the floor and Pegasus shooed away the guards. They shuffled down the hall back toward the elevator, and Seto lolled his head over to watch them depart. Pegasus followed after with the plates, but Seto suspected he would return.

The light from the bathroom provided enough visibility for Seto to see Bakura try to open his eyes. He winced and turned away from it, so Seto stood, walking over and closing the sliding door enough that only a thin stream of light came through.

Seto squinted into the darkness to see, but Bakura still winced when he opened his eyes. He managed to keep them open, if only a crack.

Bakura stood and walked up to the glass. Like Seto had done on his first day, he walked down the length of it, averting his gaze when he stepped too close to Seto or the bathroom. Bakura leaned in toward the corner where the glass met the wall, likely noticing that it went into a groove rather than along the side of it.

"It seems so small with the door shut," Bakura said.

"Pegasus and his illusions," Seto said.

Bakura flinched at Pegasus's voice as it came through the speaker. "I'm sure you'll get used to it soon. Just as I'm sure Kaiba-boy will be perfectly accommodating."

"Maybe if you keep saying that I'll get the point," Seto said.

"You'll get used to his snark. It becomes endearing eventually, or at least, that's what I've been told."

There wasn't much room to walk with the new bedding covering the floor. From the corner by the bookshelf to the bathroom door was the only straight shot of concrete, the rest covered with furniture or the makeshift bed. Once Bakura had finished examining the wall, he went back to the bed and sat. His wincing had faded, so Seto pushed open the door a fraction more before taking his spot on the floor.

Seto took a sip of his water and then, when no one else had spoken, took another. He hated this room, but it was his space, and now some stranger was sitting on his bed. It was too late to back out of the agreement now, and as soon as Pegasus left, Seto could start making this ridiculous set up worthwhile.

"Do you play chess?" Pegasus asked.

Bakura glanced at Seto, who inclined his head toward Pegasus rather than say the question was directed at Bakura.

"Oh, um, not really. That's to say, I know how."

"I have yet to beat Kaiba-boy in a game, and to be honest, I think he just toys with me most of the time. But you might be a better fit for my skill level."

Pegasus carried a flashlight, the beam never pointing into the room, but was set on the floor so the light faced the ceiling.

"How-?" Bakura said, again looking to Seto.

"You just tell him your moves," Seto said.

"I don't know the names of the spaces."

"Then Kaiba-boy can help you. But no cheating now. I'd like a fair fight."

Pegasus set up the chess set and Bakura stood up and took the two steps forward to the glass. His legs bent, but then he stood back up, glancing over at Seto.

Seto caught the nonverbal cue and got up to help Bakura get to the floor. His balance must have been off in the straitjacket, and if he fell, he wouldn't have a way to catch himself. So Seto put a hand on his back to guide him down.

Whispering a quick thanks, Bakura crossed his legs and lowered his face away from Seto. Pegasus used the moment to catch Seto's attention, gesturing over to Bakura with his eye wide.

Instead of responding as Pegasus clearly wanted him to, Seto sat down beside Bakura and crossed his own legs underneath him.

"Okay then, would you rather be white or black?"

"White?"

Pegasus already set up the board with white closest to the glass, which Seto supposed might have been the reason Bakura picked it. Only Pegasus seemed fine with their set up, and Seto almost wished for Bakura's other personality to show up so something interesting would happen.

But they played chess close to half an hour. Neither understood the game well enough to make it a match worth watching, but it distracted from the need for commentary. Pegasus understood for the most part what Bakura referred to with each move which meant Seto remained a spectator.

Seto couldn't make any comments without Pegasus insisting he was trying to help Bakura, and there didn't seem to be any convincing Pegasus that they hadn't had enough time to develop a secret series of codes. So Seto watched as Bakura lost piece after piece, until he was down by five.

"I surrender," he said. In surprise, Seto glanced over and could see exhaustion covering Bakura's face and his shoulders shaking.

"Bed?" Seto asked.

"If it isn't too much trouble."

Seto grabbed one of Bakura's arms to steady him as he stood, catching him before a slight wobble sent him back to the floor. Seto looked to Pegasus, trying to keep from sending too many accusations his way because a straitjacket alone wouldn't cause that kind of problems.

Getting someone to recline on a bed without the use of their arms was more difficult than Seto imagined. Gravity tried to pull him down too quickly and it took longer than it should have to get Bakura far enough up that he could get his head on the pillow.

Bakura's eyes closed before Seto stepped back.

He turned to see Pegasus clicking the speaker, but then returning to sit by the chess board. He opened the hatch and used the laundry basket to prop it open.

"I'd like to see you win from here," Pegasus said. His voice drifted through the hatch at a low volume, quiet enough that Bakura would be able to sleep through it. Although, with how tired Bakura looked, Seto expected it would take more than voices to keep him conscious.

It had been Bakura's turn when he quit, so Seto told Pegasus to move one of the bishops. Bakura had worked himself into a hole, but Seto could already see a way around it.

"Don't be shy waving if you need anything," Pegasus said, moving a knight.

Seto didn't know if Bakura was asleep already, so he didn't want to ask anything personal while he might be overheard. He needed to build solidarity between himself and his new roommate, and that would best be gained by asking any questions to Bakura directly for his side of the story.

Seto nodded and gave Pegasus his next move. Their conversation didn't pick up and Seto only spoke to tell Pegasus where to move his pieces. He paused once when Bakura's breaths picked up, settling into the uniform breathing of sleep.

Pegasus lost a steady progression of pieces while Seto defended the few Bakura managed not to lose. He ended up checkmating Pegasus after herding him into a corner, cutting him off with his queen and a pawn.

"Just, how?" Pegasus asked.

"It helps to have an inadequate partner."

Pegasus's lips twitched up as he began collecting the pieces. "I let you get away with snark when you're talking to me. I expect you'll give Ryou some respect."

"I'm not going to screw up seeing Mokuba."

"You weren't being very friendly."

"I'm never very friendly."

"Well work on it. I need this to be a good week."

The pieces clattered together as Pegasus finished collecting them all. He nearly knocked over the flashlight while moving the box back under its normal spot by the chair.

"I agreed to your terms."

"I've added 'be nice' to that list. He needs this more than you do."

"You can't add stuff to the list. Then I could argue for more as well."

Pegasus stood so Seto followed. He could still hear Bakura's heavy breathing, but looked back anyway to make sure that he hadn't woken up.

"You're in there. You don't get to make up the rules."

Before, Seto might have argued, but this subject seemed more important to Pegasus than the other trivialities Seto normally fought. And just because Pegasus gave his word that Seto would get to see Mokuba again didn't mean that it would happen. What was a person's word when they gave a promise to someone they owned?

"You don't need to remind me that I'm trapped in here."

"Be less discourteous when he wakes up," Pegasus said, then picked up the flashlight and the basket, closing the hatch with the movement. Pegasus didn't lock it, because like he had said, Seto would need to be able to get the Ring through should it somehow appear.

With a final, settling glare, Pegasus lifted two fingers in a half-hearted wave, then headed back down the hallway. Seto waited until he was out of sight before turning to stare at the person sleeping on his bed. Seto considered waking him up to get started with the questioning, but remembered how tired Bakura had appeared.

They had a few hours until Pegasus returned with dinner. He could wait a bit.

And while he waited, Seto opened the bathroom door completely so Bakura would wake up adjusted to at least that much light, and then grabbed a pair of the socks Pegasus brought and sat on the pallet on the floor to put them on.

Rather than read in the dark, Seto grabbed the stress ball and continued picking through the center. He was well passed the halfway point and needed maybe another inch to get through to the other side. Maybe by the end of the week, he'd have it.


	25. Chapter 25

Bakura woke up with a groan, shuffling and grabbing Seto's attention. He put down his book and turned from his spot in the bathroom doorway to see Bakura struggling to sit. He inched closer to the edge of the bed before correcting himself.

"Need help?" Seto said.

"No, I think I've – just give me a, a second," Bakura said, scooting back until the wall was behind him for support. He took a deep breath before adding, "I don't mind taking the floor."

"It's easier to get on and off than the bed," Seto said, like that was the reason. Bakura took another breath once he was upright and in the darkness of the bedroom, Seto couldn't make out his face.

"This is your space though."

"It's yours for the week."

"A week?"

Seto nodded.

Bakura's arms, wrapped up as they were, seemed to hug more tightly to himself. "I wasn't sure how long."

"Apparently," Seto said, trying to sound withdrawn, "It's how long he needs to get your room ready."

Bakura turned his face to the light and a flicker of fear left, only to be replaced with a heartbreaking hope. Seto couldn't look away from him, not without giving Bakura the answer he clearly needed to hear.

"Said you needed to be more self-sufficient."

A smile broke out and was hidden away, pressed against his knees. He probably didn't want to get his hopes up. It wasn't like Seto actually knew where he would be going to after. It might be worse than this room, which for Seto would be tragic, but for Bakura, might still be a relief.

"Could I-" Bakura started, pausing before starting over, "Could you get me some water?"

Seto nodded and stood. Bakura's cup was still on the floor where Pegasus left it, within Seto's reach. It was empty, so Seto refilled it from the sink and brought it back to Bakura, who had moved closer to the edge of the bed and the bathroom light.

The cup stayed where it was for several seconds, long enough for Seto to think through how exactly to give Bakura a sip. The idea was simple enough, but he didn't want to end up tilting the cup too much, causing water to pour all over Bakura, or too little so he got nothing. And how was he supposed to know when Bakura was finished? Did sips last a certain period of time?

"I'm sorry about this," Bakura said.

"You can't apologize constantly."

"But I am sorry."

"Keep it to yourself."

Seto held the cup to Bakura's lips and tilted it back. He kept a close eye for any sign that he was doing something wrong, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. He caught the slight motion of Bakura pulling away from the cup and took it away.

"Thanks."

"The gratitude is unnecessary."

"I'm not going to be able to pay you back."

"I didn't ask you to."

Seto walked Bakura's cup over the shelf. Bakura's cup matched Seto's, so he kept them on different shelves to differentiate. He sat back where he had been, but with his back away from the glass this time so he could face Bakura.

"Have you been in here this whole time?" Bakura asked.

Seto nodded.

"I started out upstairs. Then a dungeon. Then-"

The last  _then_  had Seto the most interested. He wanted to know what had turned Bakura into the scared, dirty ghost he had seen that morning. It couldn't have just been the dungeons or the time. But Bakura didn't go on, so Seto prompted him.

"He said your necklace keeps coming back."

"He keeps trying to escape."

It wasn't the subject Seto wanted, but he could play along. "How does that work?"

Bakura's laugh was quiet and raspy. "I wish I knew. It comes back and he takes over when it does."

"Even if he can't get away?"

Bakura started to speak, but stopped and shook his head. He brought his knees up to his chest and rested his chin on them, his feet rubbing on the edge of the mattress. "Sometimes, lately, he just gives me a break."

"It was that bad?"

Bakura nodded as best as he could with his knees under his chin. "Yeah," he said, a breath.

And because he had all week to get information from Bakura, Seto said, "You don't have to tell me."

Bakura shifted around a little, mostly moving his arms within their confines.

"I thought you'd fight back."

"There's no getting out of this room without guard or restraints."

"So you've been alone this whole time?"

Seto debated telling Bakura about Mokuba. But at some point, if everything went according to Pegasus's plan, then Bakura would find out on his own. They already had a big enough enemy without alienating one another. And he didn't want to lie to prevent getting caught in it later, so he picked the simplest form of the truth.

"I've seen Mokuba twice. Not for very long. He painted that picture on the wall."

Bakura tried to move back further, but with the wall holding most of his weight, just managed to rock back and forth. "Is he doing well?"

Snorting, Seto said, "He's been trapped here same as us. Better accommodations, I'm told."

The mention of accommodations made Bakura's expression fall from interested to horrified. Seto wanted to ask, but thought better of it. Bakura would bring it up on his own and that would prove he trusted Seto. Bakura might be a good ally.

And if Bakura's darker personality was so good at escaping, he might be good to have around in the future, after the straitjacket days.

"I know that my friends are here. Have you seen anything from them?"

"No."

"Have you asked after them?"

Seto shook his head.

Bakura smiled, small and weak, but even so, Seto hadn't thought it would be an option for him. "It's nice to see that after so long in here, you haven't changed."

"I wouldn't have agreed to you staying half a year ago."

Seto heard the breath and waiting for the follow up, "Why did you?" decided to screw his plan and tell the truth.

"He promised I could see Mokuba again. Longer, this time."

And Bakura started to cry.

Seto's body locked up, unsure of how to handle someone other than Mokuba crying. Sure, he had gotten Mokuba through plenty tears, but that was Mokuba, his brother, his charge. Bakura was a stranger, but a stranger left in Seto's care, and he was now crying out of nowhere.

He didn't know what to say to someone who was not Mokuba and was crying. Was he supposed to say something? But if Pegasus was watching through the camera, which he certainly would be, and Seto didn't do anything then he might take that to mean Seto wasn't upholding his end of their agreement.

So Seto got up and sat on the bed, blocking Bakura from the eye of the camera even though the room was probably dark enough to keep any details vague. And he sat close enough that it would look like he was comforting Bakura in case someone was watching.

"Did I say something?" Seto asked.

"I'm sorry. I've never-" Bakura had to pause when a sob broke through. "-I don't like crying. It's just, it's all this. What is this?"

"Fucked up?" Seto said without much of a better way to describe the situation.

"Why is he doing this though?"

And on that note, Seto decided to lie. "I'm sure he has his insane reasoning."

It wasn't a lie so much as just avoiding the truth. Seto didn't much care to go along with Pegasus's request to keep quiet about the life for a life discussion, but starting off with that news would be bad for everyone involved. It could wait; Seto could wait.

"He's never going to let us go, is he?"

Seto shook his head. "It doesn't seem that way."

It brought out more tears, but the sobbing was under control. His hair, which had dried into odd waves and frizz, covered his eyes while he lowered his face down to his knees. It probably needed to be brushed, and that would be a task that fell to Seto. He would wait until Bakura brought up a need for it.

"Why are you so calm about this?" Bakura asked.

"Lack of a better option."

"Maybe you've changed more than I thought."

The answer was obvious, but Seto said it regardless.

"He has Mokuba."

Bakura lifted his head, two red imprints from his knees on his cheeks. His eyes were dark too, slightly swollen around the edges, but the tears had slowed. He still looked tired, but it could have been the posture giving Seto a false read because the room was too dim to see details clearly.

"I'm doing what I can to go along with him, you know?  _He_ just keeps fighting back and I can't convince him to stop."

"He should wait for an opportunity."

Bakura rolled his eyes, a thin trail of tears threatening. "I don't understand him. He has things to do that I'm not allowed to know about. Being here doesn't fit in with his schemes."

"Doesn't fit in with mine either, but I'm not trying to worsen the situation."

"Try telling him that."

"I will. That necklace appears, just go into the bathroom. There aren't cameras in there."

"Why? You won't get anything out of helping me."

Seto leaned back now that Bakura had stopped crying, staying on the bed and facing the same direction as Bakura. Bakura's shoulder touched Seto's arm, but Seto wasn't sure if it could be felt through the straitjacket or not.

"It's my job to help you for the week," Seto said, but Bakura didn't respond, so Seto assumed he must have misspoken. To clarify, he added, "Besides, to get Pegasus to let down his guard, we all need to cooperate."

"How do we even get off an island?"

"Steal a boat and pack provisions. Head a direction he doesn't expect."

"Certainly he could track us."

"If I found the GPS, I could disable it. That's not to say he couldn't follow from a satellite or any other means he has at his disposal."

"That whole plan seems unlikely."

Seto shrugged and tried to avoid looking up at the camera. Back on the first day, Pegasus had spoken to him without being present and presumably heard Seto's responses. He had heard the speaker's crackle at the time, but that wasn't to say Pegasus couldn't hear them now.

"It wouldn't work. He'll have prepared for it."

"Wishful thinking?"

"Right now, I'm only thinking about getting upstairs to Mokuba. Once I'm sure he is fine, I'll figure out the next step."

"This must be hard for him," Bakura said. "Being back here."

"I haven't had the chance to ask him. He seems," Seto paused in search of the right word, glancing over at the painting on the wall, although  _OKAY_  didn't sound like the right way to describe him. "-exhausted. I can't convince Pegasus that this isolation will eat away at the kid."

"How old is he now?"

"Fourteen."

"When was the last time you saw him?"

Talking about Mokuba sent waves of heat up Seto's neck. Anger, anger and rage began to take over and Seto couldn't allow that on camera. But Bakura didn't know any better. After all, none of the dolt squad knew much about him other than KaibaCorp and Mokuba. Of course Bakura would end up addressing those subjects.

"On his birthday, almost two months ago."

Bakura's slow exhale was enough of a reply, but he said, "That's too long."

"I'm missing his childhood," Seto said before he could filter himself. It was too personal of a statement to have just thrown out, but could possibly work back in his favor. He would just need to limit those sort of replies in the future and pay more careful attention to what he said.

"I understand," Bakura said, and when Seto met his gaze, about to question the sentiment, Bakura's eyes grew large and he threw out, "I mean, it's nothing. My father, uh, he was gone a lot."

Seto let it slide.

"If all goes well this week, it will be another two months until I see Mokuba again."

At Seto's statement, Bakura leaned closer to Seto's side. It had to be intentional that time, so Seto popped his back as an excuse to add space between them once again.

"Did we do something to deserve this? I thought that, well, Yugi had said that Pegasus changed."

"Something must have changed again."

The speaker clicked on, the lights came up, and both Seto and Bakura turned to Pegasus.

"Look at you two, all chummy and bonding."

"If you brought in a chair, we wouldn't have to share a sitting arrangement."

Pegasus carried a plate in either hand, setting one of them down on the chair before sliding the other through the hatch. Bakura watched in interest, but Seto ignored Pegasus, deciding instead to grab Bakura's cup from the shelf and refill it.

"Well, Ryou, has Kaiba-boy been an efficacious host thus far?"

When Bakura glanced up at Seto, squinting slightly, Seto said, "Effective."

"Oh, then yes."

"Kaiba here prefers to keep his vocabulary so restrictive. I bet there are all sorts of words in there he just never makes time to use."

"I can think of several fitting words right now."

"You'll have to ignore him half the time as well. His filter is usually a little off. Oh, the coffee. Hold on."

Bakura pulled his knees up closer to him, pressing his lips together as if to communicate his lack of interest in joining in the conversation. Seto supposed it was a little disconcerting for him to fall so casually into an insulting match with Pegasus considering their circumstances. But regardless, it wasn't like a glass wall was going to change Seto.

"Did you notice anything I forgot to bring?" Pegasus asked once he returned, giving Seto the mug and taking a seat in his chair.

Seto answered for both of them since Bakura hadn't been awake long enough to check. Seto hadn't found anything missing, not that there was much more room for anything else to be added.

"Your time is combined so I'll have more to go check on the progress of the room we're working on," Pegasus said. He looked from Seto to Bakura. "I think you'll find it quite satisfactory."

"I don't have to go back?" Bakura asked. That hopefulness he had been trying to hide earlier returned, and Seto walked back over to his spot by the bookshelf to stay out of their way, giving his attention to the coffee.

"We'll see. Hopefully this can hold him just as well."

"He's been good."

"Because he knows he can't get out of there. Like our Kaiba-boy, he'll start fighting as soon as he sees his chance."

Seto lifted a palm. "You're assuming."

"Drawing you into the conversation. Don't think that I'm going to just let you hide in a corner."

The way he phrased it brought back a memory of him telling Seto moving in with Mokuba wouldn't be possible before Pegasus knew he wasn't going to be ignored. Having Bakura here would give Seto a chance to disprove the fear.

"Then discuss something I can comment on after Bakura's new room."

"The room will be ready in a week. Conversation concerning it can wait."

From Bakura's expression, he didn't like the idea, but kept his mouth closed.

After so long of being one-on-one with Pegasus, adding another person into the mix threw Seto off. Personal conversations had never been in his wheelhouse, but he at least wanted to believe that he could handle himself better than this. He led plenty of business meetings and discussions, not a one of them with less than ten people. He could talk to two at once.

But putting three people together who hardly knew each other proved more difficult. Seto knew little about Pegasus aside from the persistent  _get-to-know-me_  conversations and he knew much less about Bakura. Small-talk topics were out of the question, leaving Seto with very few possibilities.

"Bakura wanted to know about the others."

"Meaning my guests who aren't Mokuba?" Pegasus said.

Bakura nodded.

"They're doing well for the most part. I think we've reached our settling in phase almost all around."

Seto didn't know what information or what questions Bakura had asked, so Seto looked to him to continue the conversation. Most of the information, if not all of it, would be useless anyway.

"Where are they?" Bakura asked. His knees muffled his words and Pegasus must not have been able to hear them, because he looked to Seto, who repeated the question.

"All upstairs save our Mr. Wheeler."

"Why not Joey?"

Bakura spoke loudly enough that time that Seto didn't need to mediate and Pegasus was able to answer, "If he would just stop shouting at me, I'd love to offer him the opportunity. He is, however, intent on refusing me on all accounts."

"Six months in and he still isn't letting you talk?" Seto said, actually impressed.

"The day has come. We've found someone with a superior stubborn streak than you, Kaiba-boy."

 _You have Mokuba_  would have been an easy response, but Seto settled for shaking his head and crossing one arm across his chest, the other still holding the mug. There was no need to restate old facts about the situation for clarification. Everyone knew about Mokuba.

"Are they all still alone?"

"Our Téa has been visiting with Little Mokuba from time to time."

"Really?" Seto asked. His arm fell to his side as he faced Pegasus. "You didn't tell me."

"You didn't ask."

"Unprompted information isn't such a bad thing. I would have appreciated that information."

"Well," Pegasus said, biting his lip as he paused. "He isn't taking too well to her."

"He likes her."

"She isn't you."

"He isn't that dependent on me."

"Maybe you should tell him that."

There wasn't anywhere to hide in the room with the bedding and bookshelf to Seto's left, Bakura in front of him, and Pegasus to his right. The best Seto could do was tilt his face down and away from Pegasus to think through the news. He thought Mokuba would enjoy having someone else around, if just to break the daily monotony. It was all Seto could do for him at this point. Mokuba had to know he was trying.

Right?

Seto received evidence of Mokuba's well-being, but nothing was being sent the other way. Aside from any specific questions asked, Mokuba wouldn't have new knowledge of Seto's progression or cooperation. And worse, Pegasus's treatment of Mokuba might not be the same as Seto. Maybe Pegasus did hide things from Mokuba or lie to him. Maybe he had been lying to Seto this whole time about everything.

But Seto couldn't think that way, not if he wanted to get out of this cage. It didn't matter if every syllable Pegasus spoke proved to be a lie. Seto had to take him at his word.

"You know, Kaiba-boy, you didn't even offer Ryou his meal."

That was true. He had gotten used to waiting for Pegasus to leave, but Bakura would have eaten immediately since Pegasus had to assist. Bakura's spot came after Seto's though, which he could use to justify the fact that Bakura wasn't eating any later than normal.

"I'm fine with however Kaiba does things," Bakura said.

"He's supposed to be making concessions for you. If you need something, you have to let him know."

Thinking of Mokuba, Seto said, "I dislike the admission, but he is right."

Seto needed to try harder, because his current level of cooperation wasn't enough. But increasing it anymore would mean actually giving in. The faked surrender wasn't working.

"I asked for water earlier," Bakura said, almost defensively.

Seto tilted his head in acknowledgement of the point. He had asked for breakfast that morning as well. There would end up being more pressing needs that night, Seto was sure. He appreciated Bakura waiting until Pegasus was gone to make any requests.

"Don't you two go teaming up against me now. You want to be my friend here, right Kaiba-boy?"

Seto glared but nodded once. If Pegasus didn't want him to tell Bakura the truth, he shouldn't bring up lead in sentences. Seto wanted Bakura on his side and he couldn't gain that by lying to him.

He dropped his head and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. Even his conscience started to sound like Pegasus. It was still in his own voice, at least.

"You know, with you down in that other room, we haven't had much time to get to know each other," Pegasus said.

Bakura's expression turned blank, but he scooted away from the wall so his legs hung over the edge of the bed. Seto didn't know if the straitjacket made him look hunched or if it was actually his posture, but the position didn't seem comfortable.

"What do you want to know?"

Bakura's feet barely grazed the blanket covering the floor. The blanket was part of Seto's bed for the week, and he grimaced at someone else putting their feet on it, but said nothing about it. He was not going to start an argument—or in Bakura's case, just cause an affront—with Pegasus right there.

"Were you attending a university?"

Bakura shook his head. "I haven't finished high school."

"No? That's a shame. Did you have plans to?"

"I was studying for my GED. There wasn't much time."

"We've got nothing but time now. You wouldn't mind tutoring him down the line, would you, Kaiba?" Pegasus asked, both hands on his knees, but that finger still pointing.

"I wouldn't mind."

"That settles it. Once we're all up in our rooms, we can start a tutoring service. I'm sure Little Mokuba will want to join in."

Bakura nodded and didn't ask the obvious question, so Seto did for him. "Does that mean you'll let them take the test?"

"Unfortunately no. But the knowledge will still be useful."

"You know, if he ever needs to know calculus on your island."

"Tone, Kaiba," Pegasus said, then brighter, "This will be good for everyone."

"I'd like it, if you don't mind," Bakura said.

"It's fine."

"I'll be sure to stock up on textbooks for when the time comes. What else do we have, hm, ah yes. What were some of your aspirations?"

Whether Bakura noticed the tense of Pegasus's statements or not, he didn't comment. Maybe he already accepted that everything before the island was in the past, unlike Seto, who still expected a future.

Seto found himself surprised when the realization hit him. He wouldn't have thought less of Bakura for accepting this nonsense. If he was really as traumatized as he appeared, then Bakura was doing what he needed to in order to make it through. Accepting Pegasus might have been the only way to hold on to his sanity.

"I didn't expect one," Bakura said, quietly again, but Seto didn't repeat the words. It didn't feel like his place, and if Pegasus needed to know that badly, he could ask again, which he did.

"Um," Bakura said, looking up at Seto then back down at his own chest. "Travel? Just see what's around, I guess."

"World travel is a spectacular adventure. I myself have only been to a few countries, but my times there were phenomenal. Did you want to go anywhere in particular?"

Bakura frowned and rolled his head to either side. Seto heard his neck pop while Bakura winced.

"Egypt?" he said, the word sounding more like a question than it should have.

"Kaiba-boy, have you checked for his Ring?"

"I haven't."

"Be a lamb and do."

Seto set down his mug and walked over to the bed, searching for the zipper Pegasus had mentioned. Bakura wasn't looking at him, but staring blankly behind Seto. Reaching for the zipper was more awkward because of his lack of attention, but Seto pulled it down enough that he could check underneath.

Seto didn't know what he was looking at. He closed his eyes and told himself that taking off his glasses would be evidence that something was wrong. Maybe it was an odd reflection. He recognized the necklace Bakura so frequently wore, but it seemed transparent.

Although Bakura had nothing on underneath the straitjacket, Seto reached his fingers down to feel for it, only for them to pass through.

"Well?" Pegasus asked.

Seto couldn't find a way to describe what was happening without sounding insane, and rather than stumble through some convoluted description, he just rezipped the straitjacket and stepped back.

"Nothing yet."

"You seemed taken back. Are you lying?"

"I didn't feel anything. As soon as there is something, I'll toss it in the hallway."

Pegasus's lips turned downward, but after a moment of appraisal, his gaze shifted over to Bakura. "And Ryou? Are you feeling okay?"

Bakura nodded. "I'm fine. Just lightheaded."

Pegasus sent suspicious glances at both of them and Seto said, "If you'll give me the key to this, I'll show you myself."

"No, no. I'll believe you, I suppose. Trust and all. But you will keep an eye out?"

"Of course."

"Now then, we were discussing travel. Did you only want to see Egypt?"

Bakura still appeared to be in a daze, but he just closed his eyes and said, "Ireland. Australia. England. Africa."

"Egypt is in Africa," Pegasus said.

"More of Africa," Bakura said.

They continued talking geography while Seto moved back to his spot and kept an eye on Bakura. If the Ring reappeared at random times, it would make sense for it to phase in like it seemed to be. Or at least Seto assumed that would make sense. He had seen Yugi wearing his necklace for years and never witnessed it reappear or disappear.

If it came back as often as Pegasus made it seem, then Bakura certainly was aware of it. He lied right along with Seto. He must have wanted Seto to talk to the spirit – although the thought alone nearly had Seto rolling his eyes – to risk lying this soon after getting out.

They would need to stage finding the Ring after Seto had gotten a chance to get whatever information Bakura's other half had to offer. They couldn't try anything in front of the camera, but with the straitjacket, Seto had to go into the bathroom with Bakura. They could talk for maybe five minutes before the person behind the camera got suspicious. It would have to be enough.

"Well, Kaiba-boy?"

Seto turned to Pegasus and blinked.

"What?"

"Where's your favorite place to travel?" Pegasus asked, his tone slow as if speaking to a child.

"I don't like traveling."

"Oh?" Pegasus said, keeping his tone and rocking back in his chair. "You always seemed to be out of town when I tried to schedule a visit."

"A wise decision on my part."

He sat close enough to the glass that he could rap his knuckles against it. Pegasus's lips raised on one side. He adjusted the lapels of his suit, a reminder that he was dressed to the nines and Seto wore pajamas.

"You're such a grouch sometimes. And here I've brought you a friend so you wouldn't be so lonely."

As not to insult Bakura, Seto kept silent.

"Well, that's about all the time I have for tonight. Are you sure there's nothing else you can think of before I go?"

Bakura shook his head and Seto mimicked the action. The sooner Pegasus left, the sooner Seto could begin gathering information.

"Very well. Wave at the camera should you need anything. Ryou, just, oh I don't know, jump around or something should Kaiba-boy refuse to help you."

"I'm not refusing."

"Said the grouch before he had to actually do anything difficult."

Pegasus left with the lights still on. Seto stood as soon as Pegasus was out of sight, picking up both plates and carrying them to the bed. He faced away from the camera and asked under his breath, "Is it back?"


	26. Chapter 26

"Not yet. Soon."

Seto nodded and sat on the edge of the bed closest to Bakura, asking him to lower his knees so Seto could put one of the plates on his lap. He put the other beside him before turning enough to face Bakura and still be angled away from the camera.

"Ask to go to the bathroom when it does."

"I may have to go regardless."

The amount of discomfort on Bakura's face at the mention of needing to go to the bathroom was a clear match for Seto's own feelings on the subject. But Seto lowered his face to keep his own thoughts hidden, taking Bakura's fork and spearing a piece of squash. "You can specify inside."

Bakura's gaze flitted to the fork before settling somewhere across the room. His lips parted, not enough for Seto to fit the fork inside, so he just lifted it high enough for Bakura to close the distance. It took him a second, but Bakura rolled his eyes toward the ceiling and took the bite.

After he finished chewing, he said, "I'm so sorry about this."

"It's not your doing. Don't apologize."

Seto prepared another bite, but Bakura kept his mouth closed this time. Seto waited, but after a few seconds, lowered the fork.

"What?"

"I know you well enough, Kaiba. You hate this, me."

"You and this get me closer to seeing Mokuba," Seto said, offering the bite again. And once more, Bakura didn't take it.

"You shouldn't have to do this," Bakura said. He hunched his shoulders and seemed about ready to cry again. The constant tears threatened to make Seto snap because it wasn't like either of them had much of a choice in the matter, but snapping would only aggravate Pegasus more than he already seemed to be.

"Would you rather go back wherever you were?"

That stopped the potential for tears and gained Bakura's attention and the subtle shake of his head.

"Then ignore whatever inconveniences you are thinking of. If Pegasus was forcing me into this, then you could apologize."

They made it through all the vegetables before Bakura put up another argument. "This isn't the worst of it. There's not much I can do-"

"My food's getting cold. Are you going to make me wait longer?"

That got them through the rest of Bakura's dinner, followed by Seto's, in silence. Once the plate was off his lap, Bakura brought his knees back up to his chest and lowered his head. Seto appreciated it since it meant he wasn't being watched – any more than normal with the camera – and it was almost like being alone.

Seto stacked the plates and carried them over to the hatch, and because he could, went ahead and slid them through. He took a sip from his cup before offering Bakura a sip from the other.

"I need to go to the bathroom."

With a nod, Seto put both cups back on the shelf and headed to the bed. He didn't know if Bakura actually meant it or not, but either way, Seto helped Bakura get his feet underneath him. Bakura shuffled into the bathroom and Seto followed, sliding the door closed behind them.

"He's here," Bakura said.

"Well?"

Bakura blinked and Seto faced a different person when his eyes opened. Seto didn't count much toward the notion of a person's aura, but the air around Bakura had changed, darkened. Maybe it was the sudden twist of his expression, the shoulders straightening, and stance widening as if ready for a fight.

"You wanted to talk to me," Bakura said. His voice sounded different, lower, harsher.

"You've managed to get out."

"Boats are on lockdown. Couldn't check the roof for the helicopter."

Seto nodded. "Security?"

"Too much inside. Not enough outside. You have the key to this?" he said, shifting his shoulders.

"I don't. You didn't see any phones, computers, radios?"

Bakura shook his head and started walking around the bathroom, most of his attention on the ceiling where the florescent lights were hidden behind glass panes. "Do those break?" he asked.

"I don't have anything strong enough."

"And the edging around the panes?"

"Painted metal, solid piece. Could you get out again without the straitjacket?"

"Pegasus will move him into a deeper hole if I'm caught," Bakura said, tilting his head to stare at the frame around the lights as if to prove Seto wrong. He took a few steps to walk from end to end in close observation.

"He's making somewhere nicer for you."

"Because I haven't tried anything. There's nothing to try, not like this." He stopped searching the space to face Seto. "You have a plan?"

"He has my brother, so even if I got out-"

"I've been staying back to let him cooperate. This villain seems to like my landlord."

Seto frowned at the wording but otherwise didn't acknowledge it. Bakura settled in on the edge of the tub, stretching out his legs as far as he could while keeping his balance. Maybe it was just his posture making him appear so changed, that and his facial expressions. The way he carried himself was so different than the boy who had been ready to cry not five minutes before.

They had to be running short on time, so anything needing to be said couldn't wait. Seto didn't want Pegasus storming back down because they were loitering in the bathroom too long. So instead of walking back out only to pretend to find the Ring, Seto stepped up to Bakura.

"I'm supposed to take it when it appears."

"He told me."

"How often do you," Seto paused trying to figure out how best to say it. "-Rematerialize?"

"No way to tell time down there."

"Next time you decide to drop in, don't do it out there. We'll have more to talk about."

"Make sure he walks, stretches, stays active. I can't do anything with him like this."

Seto blinked, working through the idea of someone telling him to exercise the body that same someone was speaking through. He also didn't know how Bakura – not the one he was talking to but an apparent other entity – would take to the idea of a supposed spirit dictating his physical well-being. But Seto nodded regardless because what was the worst thing this other entity could do if he came back to find Bakura in the same weak state? Head-butt him?

Seto stepped forward to grab the zipper at Bakura's neck, pulling it all the way down so the entire Ring would fit through the opening.

"I've never liked you," Bakura said.

"Hn."

"But I think I will need your assistance-" he spat the word like a sip of sour milk. "-in getting out of here."

"Agreed."

He tugged on the cord of the Ring, forcing Bakura to lift his chin to create the needed space to pull it out. The expression on Bakura's usually calm face resembled a snarl, so Seto added, "Don't fuck this up for him."

Taking off the Ring didn't bring back the Bakura Seto had gotten used to outside of dueling arenas. He guessed it was why Pegasus instructed him to get it as far away as he could. He shook his head and ran his fingers back through his hair, deliberately mussing it, not too much, just enough that it would seem like he had to struggle for access to the Ring, and then threw open the sliding door.

Seto stopped in front of the camera, put on his most irritated expression, and held up the Ring. He kept it up for several seconds before taking it over to the hatch and pushing it through, using his other hand to rub at his jaw like he had been hurt. Seto put his arm through almost up to his elbow before flicking his wrist to toss the Ring.

It clattered about ten feet down. Now that it was gone, the whole thing seemed anticlimactic. Seto didn't know what he expected when he leaned back to see Bakura sitting on the edge of the tub, his eyes back to their large, fearful expression.

"Is he gone?" Seto asked, staying where he was so the camera could see him. If Pegasus told the truth about the quality of the image, then whoever was watching couldn't read his lips. But running back in might look like he was hiding something. It was better to stay in front of the camera for a while longer.

"He's gone."

Seto stood up and brushed off his knees. They hadn't been dirty, but he was putting on a show and needed to stall. Not too long, that would have been too obvious.

Seto headed back for the bathroom, closing the door behind him again.

"Was he rude?" Bakura asked. His voice was back to the soft tone.

"No more than I was."

Bakura didn't make an effort to stand so Seto joined him on the tub's edge.

"You don't know what's happening when he's here?" Seto asked.

"Sometimes. I think he's used to blocking me out when people are around."

"But he doesn't when it's just you two?"

Bakura shook his head. "Not anymore. It was very," he started, hesitating before finding his word, coming out slowly. "-quiet down there. Having someone to talk to helped both of us."

It had been long enough. Nearly a day had passed without more than a few slight references to the information Seto wanted and he couldn't wait anymore. "Where were you before this?"

Bakura's lips moved more than anything else, tightening and frowning, starting to form words before sealing together. Seto considered taking back the question although he needed to know, but Bakura managed an answer.

"We started out in a dungeon, well, after the room upstairs. He can get out of pretty much anything, so he did, three times. He mentioned seeing you here."

Seto nodded, although he doubted the fact needed confirmation.

"Pegasus kept moving us further down until there was nowhere lower. So he dug a hole."

"A hole?"

Bakura nodded. "Barred it off and locked me in with this," he said, shrugging his shoulders to move the straitjacket. His jaw quivered and Bakura sucked in his bottom lip for several moments. "He couldn't get out of that one," he continued, voice cracking as he finished and a tear slipping out. Bakura lifted a shoulder to rub at his cheek and the tear.

"He kept you in a hole for six months?"

Another nod. "Thank you for letting me stay here."

To cool the growing tension, Seto made himself laugh under his breath. "Are you going to keep thanking me the whole week?"

"I don't have another way to show you how grateful I am."

"I'll likely need your help, his help, to get us home. You can repay me by helping when the time comes."

"I'll do what I can."

"Did you actually need anything in here?"

"Not yet."

Seto helped Bakura to his feet and walked ahead of him to the door. He slid it open, wondering if Bakura could do the same if he left it cracked, and stepped aside so Bakura could get in the bed. He didn't think it was necessary to leave the bathroom door open since Seto would have to go in with him for anything, but ended up leaving it open regardless.

"What do you do all day?" Bakura asked.

"Read."

"Do the lights stay on?"

Seto looked through the glass toward where he had tossed the Ring, but found the spot empty. If they made it down that quickly, then eyes were definitely on the two of them now. Seto tried not to look up to the camera, tried to go back to the days when he could ignore it.

"He used to turn them off at night, but-" Seto caught himself and simply finished, "They'll stay on."

"Do you have something I could read? You'll have to turn the pages for me and I know it's probably-"

"They're boring books, actually, hold on."

Seto went to his bookcase and found  _Eragon_. He didn't know what Bakura liked reading, but French textbooks and history volumes couldn't hold his interest. While he was at the bookcase, he grabbed the textbook he had been reading through and carried them both to the bed.

To turn the pages for Bakura, Seto would have to sit beside him, so he did, setting his own book aside before flipping through to the opening page of  _Eragon._

They read quietly for a while, the only sound when Bakura would ask if Seto could "please turn the page?" Seto did notice that the longer they read, the closer Bakura seemed to sit.

Rather than focus on his book, Seto starting noting every time Bakura edged in. It came about every other time Seto moved to turn the page, only stopping when their arms were pressed against each other.

Seto foot bounced because he didn't want Bakura touching him. Sure, there were layers of fabric between them, but that didn't mean it was fine for Bakura to take advantage – no, that wasn't the right phrase for it – of Seto's situation. He had to help, but that didn't mean anything more. Seto's help would come in the form of necessities, not comfort.

But the tension in Bakura's body had faded, and after a while, he stopped asking Seto to turn the pages for him, but just whispered, "Kaiba?"

The last use of Seto's name was followed by "Now I have to use the restroom."

Seto marked their pages and dropped the books down on the blankets on the floor. He had known it would happen eventually, but it didn't make it any easier for Seto to get back up.

He and Bakura stood awkwardly in the center of the bathroom for about a minute, avoiding each other's eyes. They couldn't stall much longer, but Seto didn't want to be the person to suggest how to start whatever it was he was about to have to do. Bakura knew what he needed and could give the instructions. This was one thing Seto didn't mind not being in control of.

"You'll have to, um, well, get my pants for me."

Seto nodded once and stepped forward, meeting Bakura's gaze in search of his discomfort. It was prevalent, wrapped around unspoken apologies that Seto didn't want to hear.

It wasn't fair, he decided, to act so uncomfortable when it was actually Bakura who had reason to be. After his experience up in the infirmary, Seto understood how awful it was to have the ability to take care of himself snatched away and handed over to someone else. He would make it worse by acting like the victim.

The toilet was a few steps back, so Seto waited until they were beside it before going any further, reaching down for the ties at Bakura's waist and pulling out the bow Pegasus had knotted them in.

"Do you-?" Seto started, not quite sure how to ask.

"Sitting is probably easier for you. You know, so you don't need to-" The sentence trailed off and neither questioned it.

Seto helped Bakura with his pants and then to sit, keeping his gaze away every possible moment. His lips stayed in a passive line as he stepped back.

Seto volunteered to leave the room, but Bakura insisted it wouldn't take that long. So Seto retreated to the corner of the bathroom and lowered his gaze to his feet. His listened to his breathing rather than any sound from the other side of the room, counting the number of times in and out.

It didn't take long, just seventeen of each, before Bakura timidly called for him. Seto glanced up before realizing that he probably shouldn't have. He walked back across the room to find Bakura also avoiding his gaze, and reached for the toilet paper, getting enough to completely cover his hand, then a little more for good measure.

He caught Bakura about to speak, so while he reached down, Seto said, "You'd better not be apologizing."

Bakura's lips closed again as his gaze rolled upward toward the fluorescents.

Once finished, Seto heaved Bakura to his feet, then pulled up his pants and tied them off before flushing the toilet.

"Could I apologize now?"

Seto shook his head and moved to the sink to wash his hands. "I don't want you apologizing for anything Pegasus has done."

"You're still stuck in the middle."

"He gave me a choice and then offered to let me change my mind. Drop the subject."

Seto dried off his hands and looked at the two toothbrushes on the counter. They probably should go ahead and get that out of the way while they were already so uncomfortable and in case Bakura decided to go to bed before Seto.

"Let's get this over with." Seto asked.

"As long as you're okay with it."

"I offered."

Bakura inched toward the sink, and since he took so long, Seto went ahead and got the toothbrush ready for him. By the time Bakura stood next to Seto, Seto held up the toothbrush ready to go, a single drop of water falling onto the vanity.

"Have you brushed someone's teeth before?"

"I haven't."

"Not even Mokuba?"

"He learned how to do it for himself before our parents died."

"I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have-"

"Just say 'ahh.'"

Seto shoved the toothbrush in, not too far after having felt how unnerving it was for someone else to hold the toothbrush, but just enough for Bakura to stop talking.

He had to lean over to look inside Bakura's mouth, making sure he wasn't getting too far back or missing the teeth entirely. Brushing someone else's teeth felt like a completely different action than brushing his own–foreign, unnatural.

Whatever Seto was doing couldn't be very effective, but Bakura took it patiently, eyes up to the ceiling, and didn't seem to breathe until Seto announced he was finished. Bakura bent at the waist to spit and Seto turned on the water and went back into the bedroom to get Bakura's cup.

He returned and filled it about a fourth of the way, then said, "To rinse."

Although Bakura had slept most of the afternoon, he collapsed on the bed as soon as they were done in the bathroom. Seto went back in to get himself ready for bed, taking up more time with it than he otherwise would have. He hadn't shared a room since the orphanage home.

It was just a week. Seto could handle a week. He had to act normal, or as normal as he could while taking care of another person.

He set his glasses on the sink counter to rub his eyes. All of the logic – _you're doing this for Mokuba, this will gain Pegasus's trust, this is your ticket to getting out of this room_ – all faded when he really thought about what the next week meant. Taking care of a child was one thing, but Bakura was older than Seto, even if just by a few weeks.

Seto leaned over the sink and splashed some water over his face. It didn't help much and Seto wasn't even sure what he was trying to fix.

He lifted his face to his reflection, out of focus and dim, and stared at himself. How had Pegasus gotten him to this point? Taking out all of his reasonings and logic, Seto never would have done anything like this for another person before, except Mokuba.

Seto put back on his glasses and fixed his hair from where he had messed with it earlier. He steeled himself and took a deep breath. This was just one of those things he had to do, so there wasn't a point in complaining. Six more days and he would get a full one with Mokuba. In two months.

Bakura's gaze followed Seto as he walked back into the bedroom, tracking him over to the bookshelf where he took a sip from his cup, and then to the bed on the floor. Seto leaned over to pick up his book, then dropped back to prop himself up against the wall and read.

"I'm going to try sleeping," Bakura said.

"Did you need the light off?" They would have to wave for Pegasus in that event.

"No!" he said, then snapped his mouth closed and turned away. Quieter came, "I'd rather they stayed on."

Bakura managed to get under the blanket by himself, although only his legs from his knees down were covered. He didn't ask for Seto's help in pulling it up and Seto didn't offer, focusing on his book and the narrow rows of black text.

The camera had been there this whole time. There had always been someone watching. But Seto felt it now. He had been able to ignore its eye before, but there might as well have been a person standing up there with their gaze focused solely on him. It could have been Pegasus or a guard, but Pegasus would know if Seto slipped up. Would it just take one before the promise of seeing Mokuba was snatched away?

He closed the book and pressed his hands against the sides of his face, fingers to forehead and thumbs down by his ears. When had he turned into this passive, anxious mess? Was he so desperate that he would accept any deal Pegasus came across with?

"Kaiba?"

He lowered his hands and looked over. Bakura faced away from him, curled up on his side.

"Yes?"

"Never mind. I'm sorry."

"So long as it's not an apology or gratitude, go ahead."

The bed creaked as he shook his head. "No, it's nothing."

" _Bakura._ "

" _Could-you-lie-beside-me-until-I-fall-asleep?_ " Bakura asked, words spilling out in such a rush that Seto had a hard time picking out their meaning.

Because Seto didn't immediately catch on to what Bakura was asking, it took him a moment to get a response together. In that time, Bakura started rambling. "I'm so sorry. Ignore me. It's just that I, no, it's nothing. I'm so sorry, Kaiba. I shouldn't have said anything-"

He wouldn't stop, so Seto got up and did as Bakura asked, taking up the rest of the bed by lying on his back, less than an inch between them.

"Until you're asleep," he said.

Bakura scooted back until he pressed against Seto's arm and Seto heard the change in his breathing. The breaths calmed and came much slower, steadier, like he had already fallen asleep.

But Seto closed his eyes to ignore the camera, hoping that whoever was on the other side wouldn't read into both of them sharing a bed, and waited until he was sure Bakura had fallen asleep, and then a little longer.


	27. Chapter 27

Bakura slept until Pegasus arrived. Seto had gotten up much earlier and used the time to shower and get himself ready before Bakura woke, finishing his whole routine aside from shaving, before he heard the speaker.

"Good morning, Kaiba-boy. Do you plan on letting our Ryou sleep in all day?"

Seto left the bathroom and leaned against the wall nearest it. "Should've gotten me a clock."

"The Ring popped up yesterday," Pegasus said while carrying the two plates to the hatch. "Did you two talk?"

Seto nodded. "He wanted out."

Behind him, Bakura let out a heavy breath that Seto took to mean he was waking up. Seto didn't check, but Pegasus glanced back and wished Bakura a "happy morning."

"Kaiba?"

Then Seto turned to watch as Bakura used his legs to push himself into something of an upright position against the wall. He winced at the movement, and Seto wasn't sure if it was pain or just the effort. So before Pegasus could chide him for negligence, Seto moved to the bed, planting a knee up to reach over for Bakura.

"Need something?"

"Bathroom?"

"Doesn't need to be a question."

"You two go right on ahead. I've got to go grab Kaiba-boy's coffee. You know, I've never asked, are you a coffee person?"

"Black tea," Bakura said. Seto had gotten him to the foot of the bed, mostly by holding up Bakura's torso while he used his legs to inch forward. But at the end of the bed, Bakura steadied his feet underneath him and stood without Seto's help.

"I'll add it to the grocery list. Well don't just stand there like a scarecrow. He's requested a pit stop."

The door to the bathroom had been left open, so Seto stepped aside and gestured to it, sparing enough time for a tired glare in Pegasus's direction. He closed the door and adjusted his glasses. No amount of wishing would change the day to a Monday and even once they had finished in here, they had to walk out into the more unpleasant task of dealing with Pegasus for an hour and a half.

"Probably shouldn't keep him waiting," Bakura said with a fleeting peek at the toilet.

"Or eat up as much of his time as we can."

Bakura smiled, but had been facing the mirror and turned away. "I'm not used to wanting him gone."

Seto considered. "I haven't asked your take on him." He had assumed they all hated Pegasus equally, and with the little information Seto had managed to gather, it sounded like Bakura had more reason than the rest of them to despise Pegasus.

"I don't– well, let's get this over with first."

By the time they were back in the bedroom, Pegasus had taken his seat and a coffee mug waited on Seto. The sight of the food reminded Seto that they couldn't wait until Pegasus had left. He would probably get a kick out of watching Seto spoon-feed Bakura his breakfast.

Or lunch, Seto thought, looking at the meals. But it had to be done.

"So? How did last night go?"

"I'm sure you were watching," Seto said. He had brought Bakura's cup out of the bathroom with them, setting it on the floor before spotting Bakura as he first knelt, then fell back against the side of the bed. Seto reached out to steady him before he dropped the six inches left to sit.

"I have better things to do with my time than watch you two read."

"Sure. Because most of your life isn't just sitting around watching people."

Bakura seemed embarrassed by the comment, but Pegasus let it slide. He crossed his legs and began picking at a fingernail, moving his gaze from the plate on the floor over to Bakura, and finally dragging his gaze up to Seto with an amused expression.

Seto carried over both plates and sat on the floor next to Bakura, ignoring how he closed the small space Seto had left between them and hoping Pegasus didn't notice. Seto refused to comment on it since he wasn't even sure if Bakura was doing it on purpose. He had been kept in a hole for half a year. How was Seto supposed to treat him after that?

"Tell the truth, Ryou. Has Kaiba-boy been a host fit for legends?"

"He's very helpful."

And as if to prove it, Seto picked up a carrot stick, snapped it in half, and held it out for Bakura. He couldn't look at either of them and found himself missing the days of having a phone to look at while attempting to appear distracted.

"Why Kaiba-boy. Color me impressed."

Seto offered the other half of the carrot while reaching over for his mug. If part of the trade involved daily coffee, he certainly wouldn't let it get cold. Besides, he would need the energy to get through Pegasus's extended visit.

"Now, I hope you're planning to pick up where we left off before all this," Pegasus said with a general gesture toward Bakura at the word  _this_. "We had been having such insightful conversations."

"Where were we?" Seto asked. He remembered, but hoped that Pegasus had forgotten and would choose to introduce a new subject.

"Our childhoods. Feel free to jump in, Ryou. Kaiba-boy was about to tell me the highlights of his fourteenth year."

"I'd rather hear about yours," Seto said, finding that he actually meant it. Pegasus knowing about his time with Gozaburo was already a sacrifice, even if the details would be brief and the recount more of an overview. Bakura had no business with those years.

"Are you trying to cheat?" Pegasus asked. There was something about the way he said it that sat wrong with Seto. It sounded like one of his chipper replies, but also almost a threat. Their conversations hadn't been a game, so there wasn't a way to cheat. Or maybe the game changed on him again and he had yet to catch up.

"I know how much you enjoy talking about yourself."

Beside him, Bakura flinched. Seto disguised the motion by moving his arm, then turned as if to apologize. Asking Bakura about his views on Pegasus should have come much sooner. Pegasus might have gotten him to his side. Not fully on his side. If the hole story was true, then Seto doubted anyone could side with Pegasus after that, but Bakura had already expressed an overwhelming gratitude to Seto for practically nothing. His emotions toward Pegasus might have been even stronger.

"Are you asking for a time out?" Pegasus asked.

"Of this line of questions? Yes. I don't think I've asked if anyone is looking for us."

Pegasus seemed to consider it for a moment, and while he did, Seto offered Bakura another bite and sip of water. He couldn't time each bite when Pegasus was distracted, but he would take the chances given.

"A select few are still looking. I've even been called on to aid the search."

Seto could only imagine how helpful Pegasus was being.  _Have you looked in Cairo? You know Yugi-boy has his connections to Egypt._

"Have you heard anything from my father?" Bakura asked.

"He stayed in Domino for a while. I believe he's back working about."

A quiet "Oh," preceded Bakura's request for more water. Seto obliged before finishing off his coffee, exchanging a confused look with Pegasus. He could have been upset that his father had seemingly given up. It was the easiest explanation for his sudden shift in mood.

"And Kaiba-boy," Pegasus said, tone too bright in overcompensation. "Your Roland is a real gem."

"Thinking of replacing Croquet?"

"Oh no. Just making a simple comment. He's perfect for all of those busy jobs that keep him occupied at all hours."

That explained why Roland hadn't found them yet. If anyone could, it was him, but Pegasus owned KaibaCorp. Keeping Roland too busy to look was obvious, but without KaibaCorp's resources, Roland couldn't locate them. He had to stay employed to help, but couldn't help if employed.

But Seto could use it.

"You might as well let up on him. We're not going anywhere."

The comment relaxed Pegasus's posture while making Bakura tense. Seto supposed they would also need to address how Seto and Pegasus interacted as well. They could have been in the same situation, playing to Pegasus to better their own standings with him. Seto determined that they would talk as soon as they received the chance. They at least needed to be playing with the same strategy, whatever it ended up being.

"I'm content with how things are. What about you two?"

"I'll be content once I'm up with Mokuba," Seto said, letting the implication stand. He thought up the response quickly enough that it might not have seemed too fake.

"And how about you?"

Bakura pulled up his knees and sunk in on himself a little. "I like being in here?" he said, more a question than a statement, but really neither.

"After this I plan on heading over to your new room. I hope you will like it equally well."

A few counts of silence and Seto answered for Bakura. "What's different about it?"

"You're still going to have to wear that accoutrement of yours," Pegasus said. The speaker made it harder to tell, but a few twitches in the muscles in his jaw helped prove the guilt accompanying the comment. "But I'm installing, fine, I'm having some foot-activated things installed. I hear that people who have had their arms amputated use these things. Foot pumps and pedals, buttons to turn on the shower or flush a toilet. Oh, and an automated toilet as well. The shower has this automatic soap dispenser-"

Pegasus paused and leaned forward, putting all of his focus on Bakura. "It isn't going to be perfect, but it  _will_  be better."

"But I'm going to be alone there too?"

"For now."

And Bakura leaned closer to Seto.

As a person unaccustomed to finding comfort through touch, Seto didn't know how to interpret it. Seto wasn't obtuse; he knew himself well. He was the last person anyone should ever turn to for comfort, disregarding Mokuba, and Mokuba had a lifetime to lean on. Whatever Bakura had gone through over the past six months had to have been awful for him to consider Seto a valid support system and a literal shoulder to lean on.

"Well I guess that now," Pegasus said, "You're in there with our Kaiba. Who knew he was such a sweetheart? Although I suppose we've all seen that twinkle in there all along."

"Are you done?" Seto asked. The weight of his arguments was growing too difficult to hold back and the more Pegasus piled on, the more Seto thought he might snap. Pegasus could have been prodding around for a reaction, but Seto was less than two months away from his birthday. If he failed to uphold his end of the agreement here, then Pegasus might postpone a visit with Mokuba until Thanksgiving, Christmas, the New Year.

"Not quite, but for now, I suppose I'll relent. But not even you can ignore your big brother instincts."

"Easy to do without a younger brother around."

Pegasus's gaze wafted over to Bakura, now all the way against Seto's side. The mere idea of comparing anyone to Mokuba sent rolling streams of disgust from Seto's throat to his stomach. They weren't interchangeable. For his insistence that family wasn't his target, Pegasus was becoming harder to believe.

But the conversation fizzled and Seto wasn't sure where to go with it. Bakura didn't know about the life for a life issue, and Seto and Pegasus had gotten so used to discussing it that the notion fit seamlessly into most of their conversations.

"Let's talk about the future," Pegasus said. "Now that I have two of you together, it'll be easier to bounce ideas against each other."

"How distant?" Seto asked.

"Hopefully not too far off. Around the time everyone has settled."

Without raising his head, Bakura said, "What about the future?"

"Well, I know what I am going to get out of it. But you all should do something productive as well."

"I never expected a future." Bakura spoke so quietly that Seto thought he might have imagined it. But Pegasus tilted his head and said, "I didn't catch that."

No answer came. Seto watched as Bakura's toes curled and uncurled in repetitive, even motions. Unless he had been suicidal, the point of the statement was lost on Seto. Everyone expected a future. The idea of looking ahead was a basic instinct.

"What would you prefer we did?" Seto asked. Bakura wasn't ready to answer and Seto had already told Pegasus his thoughts on the matter before. Seto still didn't get why Pegasus cared how they spent the rest of their lives. If all went according to his plan, then they would spend the next fifty years or so atoning for their invented crimes regardless of hobbies.

"I'm sure you're aware by now that I don't want your KC," Pegasus said.

They hadn't discussed the topic since Seto discovered why Pegasus insisted on keeping them there. Seto doubted it would result in a different outcome, but found himself curious nonetheless.

"You said I couldn't work."

"And you said you wouldn't consider it. Is that still the case?"

Seto considered, but the length of time he took made his "Yes" sound forced even to him. Working wasn't where Seto took issue, but working for Pegasus. Any designs he came up with would be submitted under Pegasus's name, or maybe Pegasus would be extreme enough to invent a new identity for Seto to work from remotely. The offer to work didn't mean leaving.

"You could help me come up with new cards."

That was tempting. Seto wouldn't play again, but coming up with the cards might be a decent way to pass the time. But it would involve working with Pegasus, so out of the question.

"I wouldn't be all that helpful."

Pegasus laughed. "You're probably right. We'd have dragons bleeding through our skin if you had a say in it."

"There are cards in my deck other than dragons."

Bakura shivered and Seto asked, "Do you want the blanket?"

"Do you mind?"

Seto reached back and tugged on the end of the blanket, pulling it over their shoulders and off the bed to drape over Bakura's lap. He took a moment to adjust it so Bakura's feet were covered as well. After verifying that it was better, he turned back to Pegasus and hated the expression he received.

"Big brother instincts," Pegasus said.

"Except he's older."

"Details."

If Pegasus wouldn't budge on his point then Seto wouldn't argue it. Pegasus expected him to debate some subjects. A few weeks back, Seto had tried agreeing with everything Pegasus had said, just to test his reactions, and it hadn't gone over well.

_"Stop acting like a child. I promised Little Mokuba that you'd return to him with snark, and this passive act is grating."_

And so forth. Seto hadn't even been nice during that visit, just compliant. Keeping himself in the exact place Pegasus wanted proved more difficult than figuring out why they had been kidnapped. There was such a narrow line between "Act like yourself, Kaiba-boy" and "Abort and step away, Seto."

"So the future. If you don't want to design cards, what would you like to do? And you too, Ryou. I guess first we'll have our little school sessions."

Bakura might have wanted that, but Mokuba wouldn't. He'd argue that it was pointless and he didn't need to know about the quadratic equation or the solar system because he would never be anywhere to apply it. It was the same line of reasoning Seto had used for not wanting to study any further. Of course, Seto had gone through many more educational programs than Mokuba, but he knew where Mokuba's head would be.

"You're going to get rid of him?" Bakura asked.

"As soon as we find the Eye."

"Is that all you're going to do once you find it?" Seto asked. Flashbacks of their conversations hit him, of questioning the refusal to repeat Duelist Kingdom only to be told it was for lack of the proper equipment.

_He read my mind when he had it. We couldn't make escape plans._

"That's the idea. And don't give me that look. It's remarkably close to your doubtful expression. Don't you trust me, Kaiba?"

"It's not my favorite of your accessories."

"Well you shouldn't worry. It's highly unlikely I would ever turn it on you again."

But not impossible. It wasn't a promise not to.

_Who ever said that you would see the others?_

Pegasus could say what he wanted, but Seto remembered Duelist Kingdom too well to believe the lie. Pegasus would never stop at just the one soul. Back then, it had been three. Now that he lived under the assumption that he owned all of them, he might decide that keeping them that way was easier, or maybe a more fitting punishment.

"I'm not worried," Seto lied.

"What would you do with him?" Bakura asked.

"Tack him to my mantle. But that's hardly the point. We're supposed to be discussing what you would like to do after he is gone."

"I've never thought about it."

"You should. And we have time now to discuss it. Being here doesn't mean you can't have goals."

Seto got to his feet when his legs fell numb. Bakura's head turned to follow the motion, but he didn't say anything. It wasn't like they could sit on the floor for the full hour and a half. Not without additional discomfort aside from Pegasus's presence.

He didn't have space to walk anymore, so he settled for standing against the wall in his usual spot by the bookcase. It helped to split Pegasus's attention so he only could look at Seto half the time as before. It also helped to be a few feet away from Bakura's clinginess.

He blamed everything on this room. It would be better suited in a fucking fun-house.

"Come on, Kaiba-boy. You must have something in mind."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out for me."

"You trust me to plan your future?" Pegasus said, folding his hands in his lap, but not motionless. His thumb tapped against the back of his other hand and the toe of one shoe pressed against the floor again and again.

And to see his reaction, Seto said, "I'm trusting you with everything else."

Unsurprisingly, Pegasus rolled his eye and turned to Bakura. "Maybe you'll give me a straight answer then. Perhaps not now, but after some thought."

"I'll try," Bakura said.

"Kaiba, how would you describe your current mood?"

Seto didn't expect the question and didn't have a quick response. He considered before saying, "Impassive."

"And why would you say that?"

"I've been trapped in here for six months talking in circles with you. It's the only emotion I have energy for."

Pegasus pursed his lips for a moment before turning to Bakura. "And you?"

"I– I don't know? Tired?"

"It's only been a day. I'm sure you'll rest up in no time. Particularly with impassive Kaiba as your only playmate."

If Pegasus started calling him 'impassive Kaiba,' they were going to have to have another conversation similar to the 'little prince' discussion.

Seto stared at the painting in the hallway while Pegasus and Bakura talked. He was occasionally prompted for an answer, but aside from that, they kept him out of their conversation. Seto didn't know how he had made it through every other weekend visit. The hour and a half passed more like four.


	28. Chapter 28

Three days later, Seto woke up to a soft, "Kaiba?" and rolled over, feeling for his glasses. He normally left them on the side table, but with Bakura in his bed, Seto switched to the bottom shelf on his bookcase. But he fell asleep reading and had a vague memory of waking up to take them off.

The bed groaned under Bakura as he tried to get up without Seto's help.

"Hold on. I need my-"

The sharp crack cut Seto's sentence cold. The blurred outlines of Bakura's feet over the side of the bed held Seto's attention.

Seto didn't even verify before Bakura started.

"I'm so sorry. Kaiba, please, you have to know I didn't mean to. I couldn't see them and I'm so sorry-"

Lifting a hand to make him shut up, Seto shook his head and asked, "Is any piece intact?"

Bakura stood only to kneel down, however he managed, Seto couldn't see. He had gotten better at moving around in the space on his own, needing Seto's help less and less.

He had gotten more comfortable too, once they agreed on the level of their hatred toward Pegasus.

"One of the lenses isn't broken. The frames are in three pieces."

"I'm going to reach for the lens. Tell me when I'm close."

Seto ran his hand over the blankets around Bakura's feet, coming across the broken frames first before Bakura's instruction to move more to the right. He bumped it first, then got his fingers on either side.

"I am so, so sorry," Bakura said. Seto held the lens up to an eye so he could see all the broken pieces, really not that many, and pick them up. The frames split into three pieces and the other lens had cracked down the middle, but he couldn't find the other half. Seto held them up and waved them at the camera, then set the broken pieces down in front of the hatch door.

"Kaiba, I'm-"

"Stop. I'm sure he has a backup pair. And if he doesn't, he'll get one."

"How bad is your vision?"

"I'd offer to let you hold up fingers," Seto said, letting the sentence drift as the speaker crackled.

"Did you break your glasses?" Pegasus asked, although he didn't appear in the hallway, at least, as much as Seto could see.

"They're broken."

"And you didn't think to wait until morning to require a new pair?"

"Am I supposed to apologize for my blindness inconveniencing you?"

Seto easily visualized Pegasus's notable eye roll and predicted his response. "I'll be right down. No need to be snippy." And the speaker silenced.

Bakura began to apologize, so again, Seto cut him off. "Did you need to go to the bathroom?"

"Yes, but you're-"

"You'll need to tell me where to reach."

"It's okay. We can wait."

It seemed urgent enough that he jumped off the wrong part of the bed not five minutes ago, but Seto didn't comment on it. If Pegasus was coming right down, then he probably had a backup pair like Seto had anticipated. If Bakura hadn't been in the room, Seto suspected Pegasus would make him wait until morning.

"It won't be a problem," Seto said. He got to his feet and looked in either direction to check the extent of his vision. Once Bakura stood, Seto could make out his face, but most everything else blended and merged into everything around it. Even Bakura's face wasn't clear, just visible.

"I can follow the light there. But I'm not leaning into your crotch to be able to see what I'm doing."

"Kaiba. I'm sorry. We'll just wait."

"Get in the bathroom."

"Okay. Can I apologize again?"

"Go."

Bakura blurred ahead of Seto, who took careful steps, wary of the missing piece of glass, toward the light in the bathroom. He didn't know how long Pegasus would take, so he left the sliding door cracked open. He'd go back for his glasses if given the chance. Bakura's directions to the drawstring of his pants were less helpful than Seto hoped. Bakura's arms prevented him from seeing much of what Seto was doing, so he had to base his instructions mostly on movement.

"Sorry, that's-"

"Figured that one out."

Pegasus didn't make it down before they had finished and Seto's hands fumbled over the vanity for the faucet. There he could lean in to watch what he was doing and Bakura hung back behind him. The apologies had stopped, but Seto still felt their weight in the room.

Bakura had to tell Seto where his towel was so he could dry his hands, then Pegasus's voice came through the speakers.

"Boys? I bring tidings of better vision!"

After pacing the room so many times, Seto knew how many steps he needed to get from the sink to the sliding door to the hatch. Having Bakura hovering behind him was a slight distraction, but not enough to make much of a difference.

Pegasus was a dash of purple.

"You know, there was one point when I thought I would never adjust to you in glasses," Pegasus said. "Now I'm wondering who this person in front of me is."

"Did you bring another pair?"

"Let's first talk about the steps that led me to having to be woken up at one in the morning after I finally managed some sleep. So Kaiba-boy, what am I doing here?"

Seto ran his tongue over his teeth to fight off the flood of responses that Pegasus wouldn't deem appropriate. He couldn't see Pegasus's face more than just a silver blob, although maybe less silver than normal, so he didn't know where to direct his gaze. He settled on the splash of blue behind Pegasus, Mokuba's painting.

"My glasses are broken."

"And why are they broken?"

Bakura started to apologize and something in Pegasus's direction moved, stopping Bakura. "I'm sure you're very sorry for stepping on them. But why were they on the floor to begin with? Were you being careless?"

"If I admit that I was, do we end this conversation?"

"Perhaps."

Seto crossed his arms and frowned. Blaming Bakura would have been easy enough, but Pegasus had already shot down Bakura's attempt to take the fall for it. If he had just waited to get off the bed or had gone over the end not the side like they had done every time before, they wouldn't have this issue. What Pegasus wanted Seto to say, he was sure, was that the glasses shouldn't have been left on the floor at all.

"I can't help him if I'm blind."

"You'll recall how troublesome it was to get you those in the first place. It isn't easy to get a pair of glasses with your prescription made in a day. It's very disrespectful of the trouble I went through for you to leave them laying around for someone to step on them."

"Is there a point to this?" Seto asked. If there was, he wished Pegasus would just reach it.

"If you can't be careful with your glasses, you should be with your tone. And yes, I have a point. I know I said I wasn't going to threaten you into cooperation, but I do feel like you need to receive some sort of punishment for your carelessness."

Seto nearly flinched at the word 'punishment,' but kept collected enough to say, "You're leaving me blind?"

"Oh no. Nothing as drastic as that."

Seto turned when the purple blur moved, kneeling down to the hatch. Seto followed, running his fingers across the glass in search of the opening. He squinted and thought he could see Pegasus's hand along with another case for the lenses.

He grabbed them at the first opportunity, standing up and taking a step back. He snapped open the case and Bakura gasped.

The apologies started again.

Seto found the glasses and held them up close enough to see, then let his hand fall and glared in Pegasus's general direction. "You're a dick."

The music cut off.

"You cannot punish me for being upset about this," Seto said, holding up the glasses that he wanted to break in spite.

"They're your prescription. What's a little excitement in comparison to being able to see?"

"You've had these ready in the event something happened to the normal pair?"

"They work perfectly fine, Kaiba-boy. Although if you break those, I have a nice pair of pink, circular frames waiting for you."

Seto couldn't stay in the bedroom, so he retreated into the bathroom with glasses in hand. He didn't bother taking the time to close the door because the sink was out of Pegasus's sight. He wanted to call a bluff, to force Pegasus to bring out the real pair, but Seto knew that Pegasus would have planned on that. Maybe he just wanted to see if Seto would go along with it, but Pegasus's sense of humor had a defined quality.

It had to be his eyes. It couldn't have been something simple Pegasus was trying to make Seto give up.

"Come on, Kaiba-boy. I'm going to have to see eventually."

Seto reached out of the bathroom just long enough to flip off Pegasus.

With the mirror in front of him, Seto put on the lime green frames. They were the same shape as his last pair, but made from a cheap plastic that even on his face felt too flimsy.

He turned his head to see the zebra print running down the temples. He could see again, but at what cost? His reflection didn't even look like him, but some child trying on glasses from a dollar store. And on closer inspection, the lenses seemed bigger than the last set, making the green more prominent.

Being blind might not be so terrible. It wasn't like Pegasus would let him escape even if he could see.

"You're being silly. It's just an accessory."

"An accessory?" Seto shouted, still caught up in staring at himself. "They're a fucking necessity!"

"That's too dramatic. Plenty of people live blind. Look at me. I'm working with just the one."

"And you can see out of the one you have without problem. Tell me you're joking."

"Not at all. That's your new pair."

Seto would have broken them too if Pegasus hadn't mentioned circular lenses. He should have gone with contacts regardless of ease or effort. Anything to prevent the travesty staring back at him.

"You can't hide in there forever."

He could try.

Time only made his reflection worse. He had hoped that the longer he stared, the more accustomed he would be to the green. The green alone he might be able to tolerate, but the pattern down the sides was too much.

"Kaiba?"

Seto turned when Bakura walked in, peeking in first and biting down on a lip. He didn't laugh. He looked closer to crying.

"I'm so sorry."

"Apologies don't replace my glasses."

Bakura shrank at the words and Seto took a deep breath. "I'm not mad at  _you_. Calm down."

"You've been so helpful and I'm causing so much trouble and taking your bed. Now I've ruined your glasses and this-"

"Are you trying to make me angry with you?"

"Well no, but you probably should be because I'm the one who stepped on them and-"

"Stop."

If he had felt up to comfort, Seto might have thrown out a worthless comment like, "I'll get over it" or "It's not that big of a deal." But he wouldn't get over it because it was a big deal. He had fucking zebra print on his face.

Even being able to see couldn't balance out Seto's anger. Pegasus bought these. He had been prepared for this, planning it, looking forward to it.

"Am I going to have to bribe you to come out?" Pegasus called.

"If you bribe me with a normal set of frames."

Bakura, standing in the doorway, almost between Seto and Pegasus, slid so his back pressed against the wall. He stared at his feet with lips still pressed together. Seto wanted to be angry with him, but mental images of him living in a hole in the ground for six months stifled any anger trying to break free. Pegasus was the enemy, not Bakura.

"When I turn the music on again, I'll change it to a different album."

That … was a tempting offer. Months of listening to the same boring music on loop wore down Seto, and he heard the songs in the shower, in his sleep, even when Pegasus shut off the music. He knew every note of that album. If Seto listened to it any longer, he might forget that other music existed.

But the glasses.

They hadn't gotten any better. The green glowed all the brighter, and even while staring straight at himself, the zebra print weighed down on Seto's thoughts.

"Come on, Kaiba. My offer's about to come off the table. I won't tease too much. Scout's honor."

"I highly doubt you were a boy scout."

"Don't make me count down."

Seto would have to come out eventually, so he might as well get something out of it. But Seto could see his reflection. There was really just one option, so Seto took off the glasses.

Keeping a hand on the wall, Seto headed toward the bedroom, passing Bakura who never really came into focus as Seto walked by. He felt around for the glass, following it a few feet forward until he was sure he stood beside the hatch.

"Take them back. Plenty of people live blind."

"Now you're just being ridiculous. The lenses are perfectly acceptable, so there is no point in acting childish."

"I'm being childish? These are designed for children to play dress up."

"They fit your head, don't they?"

Seto knelt down and set the frames on the floor by the broken pieces of the pair he had actually liked. Then carefully, he stepped back until he felt the blankets under his feet and sat on his bed.

"Don't be like that. What are you supposed to do all day if you can't see?"

"Wait for your company, I suppose."

"You won't be able to take care of our Ryou."

"That's your problem."

"You'll forfeit on our arrangement. Don't you want to see Mokuba?"

"I couldn't see him anyway."

The purple blur didn't move to take the glasses. "It's this pair or the pink circles," Pegasus said. "I'm not going to let you whine your way out of this one."

"I'm picking neither."

"I'm not giving you that option."

"What? Are you going to come in here and glue them to my face?"

"If I have to."

"You don't have to," Seto said. He heard Bakura sit on the bed but didn't look away from Pegasus. He hoped his glare was close to target. He could tell where Pegasus's face was, but with his hair over an eye, it made it harder to find where to focus. He thought he spotted a shadow about where Pegasus's eye should be, so he kept his gaze there.

"You've got to learn some respect, maybe a touch of humility. I'm sure they aren't that bad."

"They're green with a fucking animal print. I'm already in a display case. How much more do you want to torture me?"

"Put them on, Seto."

"No."

He heard Pegasus's sigh and saw a slight movement. It took a moment for him to respond. "I'll threaten you if you want. Put them on or the next time you'll see Little Mokuba will be for his sweet sixteen."

"You wouldn't."

"You will obey me, Seto."

Two years without Mokuba was worse than the glasses. It wasn't an option, not really, so Seto moved forward, reaching out to feel around on the floor for the pair. He saw the green streak against the white floor, but still missed grabbing them the first time.

Seto didn't put them on until he had settled back against the wall. He expected his vision to clear to a smug expression, but Pegasus appeared more annoyed. "See?" he said, crossing his arms over the purple robe Seto hadn't been able to see before. "Obeying me isn't so bad."

"Why give me more reasons to hate you?"

"I don't care if you hate me. But trust that there will be consequences for disobedience."

"What happened to not threatening me with Mokuba?"

"You stopped responding to other methods. It's late. I'm tired. Wear the glasses."

Pegasus wished Bakura a good night and left, clicking off the speaker as he did. Seto wanted to rip off the glasses, but knew that Pegasus would end up reviewing the footage, maybe not immediately, but at some point.

"How many more times will you let me apologize?" Bakura asked.

"None. Pegasus is showing his true colors."

"Do you really think he would keep you from Mokuba that long?"

"We're supposed to be trusting him, right?" Seto said, making sure his face was in full view of the camera in case his lips could be read. "He can do what he wants."

Falling back asleep wouldn't be possible, not with his amped energy, but it was an excuse to take off the glasses. Seto asked if Bakura needed anything else, and after another round of apologies, deciphered that the blanket would need to be adjusted. Seto stood to help with that, mentally repeating his conclusion to not punish Bakura for breaking the glasses, and took a step back once finished.

And stepped on the missing half of the broken lens.


	29. Chapter 29

If not for Bakura, Seto wouldn't have gotten out of bed the following morning. He never fell back asleep once Pegasus left, but the glasses waiting for him – on the side table rather than the floor this time – mocked him, but likely not as much as Pegasus would. The sharp attitude from before might roll over, but Pegasus bounced back more quickly than most people.

But he had to get up. Bakura needed to shower and Seto supposed he should as well. Seto completed his morning routine first, then went to the shower to run it for Bakura.

After a minute or two, Seto checked the temperature with his fingertips and turned it down a notch, shaking the water from his hand and turning toward the bedroom.

"Whenever you're ready."

The bed creaked and Bakura walked into the bathroom. He nudged the door open a little more with a foot as he passed it, widening the gap enough for him to get through. His eyes were red. Apparently he hadn't gotten much sleep after Pegasus's visit either.

"Sit."

Seto pointed to the toilet, lid down, and Bakura did as instructed. They would have to—Seto would have to brush his hair first, then get him down to nothing but the straitjacket before they could get started in the shower. Before grabbing the hairbrush, Seto went ahead and pushed up his sleeves.

"Do you want to talk abo-?"

"No."

The only other person whose hair Seto had ever brushed was Mokuba. He and Bakura had a similar style, even though Mokuba's was thicker and longer. Brushing Bakura's went faster, but mostly because lingering over it brought back memories Seto wasn't interested in thinking on.

"Stand."

Bakura did.

"Kaiba-"

The breath Seto forced was loud and long, silencing Bakura before he could let out anymore of his unwanted apologies. Seto had seen his reflection that morning. Whether or not Bakura's foot broke his old glasses, Pegasus was to blame.

Rather than give Bakura more time to find some new way to blame himself, Seto knelt to reach the ties at Bakura's waist and offered to help him with the toilet first.

"I'm fine for now."

Seto nodded. "Let me know."

"He'll still let you see Mokuba."

"I know. Step out."

Seto folded the pants and looked back to the bedroom like he had a calendar which would tell him if Pegasus was bringing the laundry down today. Wednesday was one of those days, so yes, they would end up with a change of clothes either when Pegasus came for breakfast or dinner.

"Check first."

Bakura lifted a foot over the edge of the tub to get a feel for the temperature. "A little hot."

Seto turned it down more and helped Bakura in, getting him seated on the tub floor. They had tried standing the first time, but ended with Bakura's legs getting tired and water rolling down Seto's arms and soaking his shirt. Sitting and kneeling worked best for them both.

Bakura leaned his head back under the spray, the water pressure too low this far down to do much good unassisted. Seto ran his fingers through Bakura's hair to help the water distribute.

Talking made the shower easier.

"He'll bring more books if you ask," Seto said. Bakura had finished all the fiction Pegasus brought and had given the textbooks a few uninterested glances. Seto didn't blame him. While Pegasus had kept to the nonfiction Seto preferred, he made sure that not a single one of the books had anything noteworthy in them, but vague accounts of dull events, cookbooks, or geography guides.

"I couldn't take them with me."

Seto reached for the shampoo. "But you won't be bored for the rest of your time here."

Bakura's eyes closed as Seto rubbed the shampoo between his hands before lathering it through the other's hair. Three showers in and Seto had gotten down the motions necessary to get Bakura's hair at least somewhat clean. After his appearance coming in to the display case, Seto doubted Bakura would be too picky with Seto's thoroughness.

"Aren't you bored?"

"Always."

"Do you ask for more things to do?"

Seto shrugged and got Bakura to lean back to rinse. "Not often." After a short pause, Seto added, "He's not going to tell you no."

"He said no to you last night."

The effort Bakura put into avoiding Seto's glasses was about equal to Seto's effort not to look down during the showers.

"He kept you in a hole for half a year," Seto said, ignoring the tensing under his hands. "He owes you."

_And owns you._

A trail of water slipped passed Seto's hand and rolled down the side of Bakura's nose. A few of the suds ran with it, so Seto wiped them up with his thumb.

"You think he's scared of me? Of him?"

"He's without his matching trinket. It's likely."

Seto grabbed the rag off the hook and held it under the water before rubbing it against the bar of soap. He gave it a few seconds before starting with Bakura's neck, making sure his face wasn't under the direct path of the water.

"He's not going to let me out of this."

"I doubt it."

"I'll lose my arms."

With his arm stretched to his limit, Seto moved down below the straitjacket. Since it was easier not to look, mentally easier, at least, Seto lifted his attention to Bakura's face. His gaze was locked onto the opposite corner of the shower stall. His jaw was tight and somehow, this subject and Seto's current actions hadn't brought out any tears.

"You said he lets you exercise them."

"Twice a week. And never long enough to really do them any good. I already can't lift anything. It hurts to move them."

Seto rinsed the rag and took off his glasses when they fogged. He resisted the urge to snap them before returning to Bakura. As hideous as they were, being blind wouldn't help Seto, and it potentially would keep him from Mokuba for two years.

"It means he can't fight either."

"I know what it means," Bakura snapped. His eyes widened the moment after and before his lips parted to apologize, Seto smirked.

"That was good," he said, reaching back to turn off the water.

"You didn't deserve it."

"You can't throw it at the person who does. Might as well get it out."

Seto got Bakura to his feet before sliding the towel off its spot on the shower curtain rod. The straitjacket took a few hours to dry entirely, but Seto dabbed it off as best as he could, then Bakura's hair.

"I don't want to be mean to you, Kaiba."

"I'd rather you were."

"Why?"

"Because," Seto said, reaching down to dry Bakura's legs so they could get his clothes back on and end the awkwardness floating between them. "You don't like me. No, don't. You don't and that's fine."

"I do like you. Maybe I didn't before-"

"It's this room. Turns you into something you're not."

Bakura nodded like he understood and stepped into the pants as Seto offered them. "But we're in here now."

Seto tossed the towel over by his dirty clothes. Bakura's hair needed to be brushed again, so they walked over to the sink where Seto had left the brush.

"I won't always be this puppet Pegasus wants. We're not friends."

"We could be."

"You're a means to an end."

The hairbrush snagged on a tangle and Seto paused to work it loose with his fingers.

"So are you," Bakura said. His head leaned with the brush. "And we can still be friends."

"Think what you want."

"I will."

The speaker turned on before Seto had decided to step out, but after the night before, he wasn't going to risk a repeat. Before Pegasus could call out for him, Seto set down the hairbrush, opened the door, and stepped into the bedroom, meeting with Pegasus's smirk.

"You know, they aren't as ridiculous as I had imagined. I should have gone for the circles."

"Good to know you were aiming for ridiculous."

Seto picked up the plates Pegasus already slid through and carried them over to Bakura, sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed with his legs stretched out in front of him.

"Of course I was. You shouldn't have been so careless."

"I broke them," Bakura said. "It really wasn't Kaiba's fault. He tried to stop-"

"He left them on the floor."

 _You put him in my room_ , Seto thought, but just put Bakura's plate on his lap. Pegasus took his seat while Seto went back for the coffee before sitting beside Bakura, taking a sip and adjusting their plates.

"Someone's touchy this morning," Pegasus said.

"You threatened me with not seeing Mokuba for two years."

"I told you right off a year or two. It's not like that should surprise you."

But Seto knew the truth now. He had been trying, putting actual effort into playing Pegasus's game. They were supposed to be done with the threats. And Mokuba couldn't take another two years.

He chose not to answer, but to give his attention to the food. After a few sips of coffee, he worked to get a grape on the fork so he wouldn't have to hand-feed Bakura. Imagining Pegasus doing this for Bakura for months was an impossible mental picture. Of course Pegasus would want to design him a self-sufficient room. Anything to take the responsibility from him.

"You can't let this sour, Kaiba-boy. Best to move on."

"Is that an order?"

"Would you like me to make it one?"

The plastic fork almost snapped in half in Seto's grip. "Would you like the same unconditional obedience Gozaburo demanded?"

"Okay, so you obviously aren't in the mood to talk. What about you, Ryou? Are you feeling perfectly dandy this beautiful morning?"

"I'm fine," Bakura said, lowering his head and turning toward Seto.

"How did you already get him on Team Kaiba? Team Kaiba doesn't need supporters."

Seto glanced down at Bakura, who had returned to his usual position of pressing against Seto's side. Only half a year of isolation could make a person want to sit so close to Seto, and there wasn't a point of commenting on it. Seto wished Pegasus wouldn't bring attention to it. Neither of them wanted it.

"Why are there teams?" Bakura asked.

Seto decided that Bakura wasn't the worst roommate he could have gotten.

"Because sweet, dear Ryou, Kaiba-boy insists on lashing out any time he doesn't like something. He's spoiled himself an awful lot in the years since we met."

"You've even admitted I'm trying," Seto said. He did what he could to keep his voice level, distracting himself with setting up another bite for Bakura. He didn't understand this sudden change in Pegasus's attitude. It couldn't have been anything from the previous night, unless Seto's refusal to leave the bathroom had somehow bothered him.

"You're complacent."

Seto set down the fork and reached for the coffee. He needed to keep his hands busy and away from Bakura for a few seconds, maybe half a minute. Complacent. How had anything he had done in the past weeks been complacent? Questioning Pegasus's definition of the word might have helped, but if he started arguing, he wouldn't be able to hold back. He had come too far with all this to just surrender to the urge to argue.

"Now then, can we move past all these unpleasantries?"

Bakura answered for Seto, nodding before accepting the next bite offered. It was probably better that way, to let Pegasus win the round. Seto didn't know if his supposed complacent self would argue back or not, but he could see the edges of green in his vision, and couldn't take a chance at letting out any untapped anger.

"I'm sending out someone for a grocery run today," Pegasus said. "Any requests?"

Bakura couldn't come up with anything, but Seto said, "Straws."

Pegasus nodded. "No types of food though?"

"What you're bringing is fine," Seto said. He might not have liked everything, but nutritionally, he couldn't complain. The portion sizes had been increasing over the months even though Seto rarely finished a plate.

Pegasus left before Bakura finished his breakfast, so they stayed seated for a while so Bakura could eat all he wanted, then Seto picked at his own meal.

"I need to go to the bathroom," Bakura said, but it wasn't with any embarrassment like normal. So Seto nodded once and set the plates aside, pushing to his feet and extending a hand to Bakura, who said he could get up on his own. Seto spotted the change before he had gotten to his feet and slid to block him from the camera as best as he could. Maybe the camera couldn't pick up the difference, but Seto took the safe option, then hated himself for how safe he had been playing everything. The safe road led to Mokuba. He needed to keep reminding himself of that.

In the bathroom, Seto closed the door behind them and turned to Bakura.

"I'm going to have to throw you out again."

"Not yet. How much longer will he be in here?"

"Three more days."

Bakura frowned and walked around, pacing the length from the sink to the shower while rolling his head to either side.

"And what's with those?" he asked, lifting his chin toward Seto's face, and most likely, the glasses.

"Pegasus's idea of a joke."

Bakura didn't laugh. "Restraints, absurd glasses, holes in the ground, he's trying to drive us to his level of insanity."

"You're going to have to get out of that jacket," Seto said. "You can't keep fighting him."

"I can get out," Bakura said. He stopped pacing to glare at Seto. The severity was lessened by the straitjacket and the fact that Seto had been hand-feeding his brighter half for days, in addition to other things. Bakura's gaze kept losing focus and working its way to Seto's glasses.

"He will kill you before he lets you get away. Get the jacket off and then we can work on an actual plan."

Bakura wouldn't be any help if he couldn't gain Pegasus's trust. If his abilities to escape were put out of play, Seto's options shrank. There wasn't a plan yet, but when it came to him, he needed all the cards he could get.

"He's getting stronger," Bakura said with a glance down at himself. "I'll be able to use-"

"Whatever magic you're planning on can't be faster than a bullet. And if you fail, he will send you back down to that hole."

If he got through to Bakura, Seto couldn't tell. His jaw clenched and his arms shifted, as if trying to break through the damp canvas holding him down. It couldn't have been comfortable to have his arms in that position for so long. He should have been willing to do whatever it took to get them out.

"And I'm supposed to trust in this grand plan you haven't yet come up with?"

"I won't come up with anything that will get you shot."

That didn't help calm Bakura, who continued to fidget and jerk his arms. Seto watched his struggle without comment, internally debating whether or not he would prefer the straitjacket to the glasses. Probably the glasses.

"Any ideas of what your plan will be?"

With a shrug, Seto headed over to the sink to wash his hands. They were probably coming up on the limit for how long they could unsuspiciously hide in the bathroom. But coming out with the Ring again would be too obvious a sign of what they were doing. He would have to find it this time back in the bedroom, in front of the camera.

"Can you act normal when we go back out there?" Seto asked.

"Normal?"

Seto didn't want to admit he was speaking to someone other than Bakura, but it seemed like the only way to get his point across. "Like Bakura. There's a camera and I'd rather Pegasus didn't know we were talking."

Bakura scoffed. "Of course I can act like the landlord. But don't expect me to curl against your side."

"Agreed."

Seto opened the door for him and watched as the sharp angles of his face faded into the softer ones Seto had seen so often in the past half-week. He turned his head away from the camera and sat on the bed, scooting back and looking to Seto.

"Are you going to hold a book for me?" he asked, much less convincingly than his scoff had suggested.

But Bakura had left enough space on the bed for Seto to sit next to him and block the camera, so after grabbing two books – not the book Bakura had been reading. Going back pages after tossing out the Ring wasn't an option – and took the requested seat.

They read for a while. Seto kept up with the time by the number of pages he read, eventually looking over and asking, "Are you okay?" although he knew the camera wouldn't see that action. He wouldn't let Pegasus find any holes in his act.

Bakura shook his head. Seto couldn't tell if it was a request to wait before throwing off the Ring, or an answer to the question. Either way, the Ring was coming off.

Seto shifted so he knelt on the bed, reaching for the zipper. His book dropped from his lap to the comforter, but Seto left still, focusing on getting out the Ring.

Bakura struggled. He got a foot to Seto's stomach, nearly knocking the wind from him, before Seto found the cord around his neck. Bakura's scuffling helped sell the idea that he hadn't been around for the entire morning, so Seto allowed it to an extent. The second kick ended with Seto ripping the cord in half instead of working it around his head.

"I should have known you'd help him," Bakura said, right before Seto worked the Ring out of his collar. He did it a little more forcibly than needed, but even if Bakura took the cue to act, Seto didn't like being compared to Pegasus.

The actual Bakura didn't come back when Seto moved the Ring away, not until a few seconds after it had gone through the hatch and clattered down the hall.

Seto stood and rubbed his stomach, already to feel the bruise from Bakura's kick.

"I feel like I remember him hurting you," Bakura said. His voice returned to the normal anxiety.

"I'll live."

"I'm so sorry. You'd think he would realize-"

"Do you hear me blaming you?"

"Well no, but-"

"Then stop."

Seto sat back down on the bed, picking up the fallen books to find their pages. Bakura might not have known how far he had gotten while checked out, but Seto thought he remembered from a glance.

"If I say something, are you going to be angry with me?" Bakura asked.

"Say what you want."

"You're nicer than I expected."

Seto smirked and set the book in Bakura's lap. "I doubt you mean 'nice.'"

"You're not mean."

"I'm plenty mean. Did you want this book or a different one?" Seto said, both to change the subject and to offer to grab the book Bakura had been working through before his other half took over.

"Would you like me to continue considering you mean?"

"I would." Seto paused to reconsider. "Once this is over. There's no point in cowering around me when we're in here."

"Thanks," Bakura said, leaning against Seto's side. "But I'm going to keep apologizing for things."


	30. Chapter 30

"Last day together, you two!"

Bakura groaned as the sound woke him, rolling onto his back and leaving his face toward Seto. His eyes remained closed until Pegasus threw out a "Happy birthday!" Then he gave Seto a tired glance and sat up.

"I hope you don't mind, Ryou, but I thought we would postpone your festivities until tomorrow in your new room."

"That's fine."

Pegasus smiled and didn't move to the hatch with the plates. He held them out in front of his chest and kept Seto's gaze with a patient smile. After several seconds, Pegasus raised his visible eyebrow and dipped his head a bit.

"Kaiba-boy, aren't you forgetting something?"

"Good morning," Seto said, putting his book to the side.

"Much better. Are you devastated to lose your roommate?"

Neither answer felt right on Seto's tongue, so he ignored the question in favor of saying, "I don't see coffee," even though he knew Pegasus's response.

"I'm going to get it. Don't worry your dramatic little head over it. Still love the glasses, by the way."

Bakura wobbled to his feet to move to the foot of the bed. Before it was requested, Seto reached for Bakura's cup, taking it from the bookshelf and over to Bakura. He sat down beside him to offer a sip, then realized he was just going to have to stand again.

"You  _are_  going to miss him," Pegasus said. He switched out their plates, slowly, since a straw rested across the side of one of them. Bakura insisted he didn't mind using a straw that had dropped to the floor, but Pegasus and Seto had been careful with them. The straws beat having to tilt the cup back. Seto hadn't gotten used to the motion.

"I'm off to grab your coffee. Don't do anything too exciting while I'm away."

Pegasus was only gone for a few seconds, half a minute at most. When he returned, Seto got both of the plates and the coffee in a second trip. The breakfast plates didn't match, one with what looked like a spinach omelet and the other with fruit and toast. Figuring out which was which didn't require direction.

"Well, Ryou, are you excited about seeing your new room tomorrow?"

Seto turned around in time to catch Bakura's short peek in his direction. "I guess. Yes."

"That's not a very enthusiastic response. I expected less depression on your birthday. Are you really not happy about it?"

"I am!" Bakura said, too quickly. "I'm very excited to move."

"No need to worry. I doubt Kaiba-boy will mind returning to his solitude. You shouldn't concern yourself with upsetting him."

Returning to solitude sounded bland. Watching Bakura took up so much time that it made the days go more quickly, and the conversations had been a break from the monotony of the music. He would get his bed back though. And wouldn't have to help Bakura in the bathroom.

Seto put his own plate aside for after Pegasus was gone. Nursing the coffee, Seto sat beside Bakura again and moved Bakura's plate into his own lap for better balance.

"Any plans for your last day together?"

Seto made a show of looking around the room, to the bookshelf, then the side table, and finally to the pile of bedding on the floor.

"I thought we'd read," Seto said.

"You could try playing hangman," Pegasus suggested. He pointed over to the shelf where Seto kept the notebook when he wasn't using it. "Our Ryou must be tired of so much reading. We're not all such literature snobs."

"I like to read," Bakura said. His body tensed like it did when Pegasus insulted Seto. It had only been a week. Bakura shouldn't have been so eager to jump to Seto's defense.

Pegasus waved a hand flippantly and said, "Not all day, every day. Not everyone is as dull as our delightful Seto."

"You don't talk about me like this to Mokuba," Seto said. Bakura's plate set forgotten on his lap until he tried crossing his legs, then started going through the motions of cutting the omelet up into bite-sized pieces. Stalling another few minutes until Pegasus left would be fairly easy.

"Are you telling me or asking?"

"Both."

"Of course, I talk about you like this to everyone. Our dear Kaiba-boy and his eternal brooding, lovely Seto and his many snarks."

"You call me 'lovely Seto?'"

Pegasus grinned. "Only on the brightest of occasions. And of course it's a comment on your personality and the sheer joy we all get from being around you on your moody days. And now with those glasses, I'll have to come up with some other clever title for you."

"What would it take for you to just call me Kaiba?"

"A lobotomy, most likely. Why the infatuation with everyone calling you Kaiba? Seto is such a better name."

With Bakura sitting next to him, Seto wasn't about to touch the subject. Addressing it with Pegasus wouldn't be ideal, but there was the whole matter of opening up in what little ways he could. The final goal, gaining Pegasus's trust, still loomed far out ahead of him, but it didn't involve Bakura, other than a moving piece, a strategy.

"What? No answer? Ryou, join my team for the day to see if you can scrounge up an appropriate response from our sudden church mouse."

Maybe Pegasus wanted to push Seto to the verge of snapping. Maybe it wasn't such a hard possibility to believe. The glasses had to have been a test. Or a horrible joke. If Seto didn't snap, that would prove a sign of trust, maybe getting him another step closer to the glass raising. Or maybe it wasn't. Maybe Pegasus just wanted to keep Seto trapped forever.

Too many maybes.

"Are you moving him out in the morning?" Seto asked in hopes of a clean subject change. He picked the first that came to mind, although it drew a subtle flinch from Bakura.

"That's the plan. We'll do breakfast and then I'll take him over, get him settled, and return for your time slot. You'll be on your own again by ten sharp."

"Could you get me some more water?" Bakura whispered.

Seto did and took in the expression Bakura was trying to hide by keeping his face down. His eyes were narrow, but not like when the Ring reappeared, and his lips pressed together when he finished taking a sip. Like the entire week before, he sat too close to Seto's side, even though Seto had left at least a foot between them when he sat.

"Well, I've got to be off. Little Mokuba's waiting for me, and I promised him that I'd eat whatever concoction he cooked up this morning. Any messages?"

None he'd risk conveying through Pegasus.

"No? Then I suppose I'll be on my way. It's our dinner night, Ryou. We'll have some birthday celebration tonight and tomorrow. Don't forget on me."

As if forgetting changed anything.

After Pegasus left, Seto helped Bakura with the rest of his breakfast before working on his own. He ate and Bakura fell back to rest his head on the mattress, staring toward the bookshelf. His lips stayed pressed together, and as his bangs fell aside, Seto could see the frustration in the lines on his forehead.

"What?" Seto asked.

"I'm not ready."

"Not ready to move?"

Bakura shook his head against the mattress. "To be alone."

"I'm not much for company."

"He warned me you'd be harsh, that I'd probably have to ask a couple of times before getting you to help. But you weren't bad, and I know this is hard for you, but what if you could come-"

"He wants me in here," Seto said. "I'm not getting out."

Bakura's shoulders hunched up and he dropped his chin to his chest, his breaths heavy and deep. "Maybe if we just asked he would think about it. Do you want to be alone?"

"Pegasus wants us isolated."

"Would you want to come?"

His plate was still half-empty, but Seto put it aside to give the conversation his full attention. It seemed the least he could do considering how distraught Bakura was acting, and it wasn't like Seto couldn't relate in some regard.

Not completely. He doubted he would ever understand completely.

"I have to get to Mokuba."

"He's never going to let me out," Bakura said before burying his face against Seto's shoulder. Seto didn't know if it was because of the straitjacket or the severity of the breaths, but Bakura's entire body moved with each sob.

"I don't think he expects this to be a permanent solution," Seto said. His mind jumped over any sort of comfort and straight into practicality and logic. "I doubt he wants to keep up with you any more than you want him involved."

"He'll kill me."

Seto couldn't argue it. Pegasus might kill them all if things carried on without improvement for much longer. Just telling Bakura's harsher half to behave didn't mean that he would. There had to be a way to keep him under control, more than simply waiting for a necklace to materialize and tossing it away. And certainly a better option than letting Ryou's arms rot.

"He seems to like you."

"But not  _him_."

"Can't you talk to him?"

The snort that came from Bakura was neither amused nor offended, but more like he struggled for breath and had to force the motions. "He'd have to care enough about me to listen."

"I'm sure he would rather you stayed alive, seeing as how it's his body too."

Seto's body began to protest sitting on the floor, so he stood, leaving the plate where it was, and headed over to the makeshift bed. He sat again, facing the glass to leave a gap in the personal nature of the conversation that eye contact wouldn't have afforded him. He couldn't go with Bakura, even if Pegasus offered. Getting connected to Bakura, even as just a more permanent roommate, meant Pegasus wouldn't let him go up to the suite with Mokuba. Seto could get himself stuck playing nurse while Mokuba's strength and will melted away. It wasn't an option, even if Seto-

"What am I supposed to do?" Bakura asked. "I don't want to go back to being alone."

"Don't try to escape? Pegasus is going to move you eventually."

"It's not my choice.  _I_  am trying to do everything he asks of me."

Seto's glasses slid down his nose a fraction too far and a flood of green invaded his vision. He pushed them back into place so the green bordered his line of sight. He stared down at the bottom of his rims rather than giving Bakura evidence of how much a hold he had on Seto's thoughts.

"You were right. Pegasus will kill you if he tries anything again."

The bed creaked and Bakura moved away from the it. He scooted back against the glass to face Seto. Seto kept talking because his mind decided to turn Bakura's hair black and his eyes to a violet-gray.

"You'll just have to get him to understand that. Pegasus-" Seto started, but paused because he didn't know how to finish without giving away the information Pegasus asked him to keep quiet. Seto reconsidered his words before saying, "He doesn't want us dead. But we're only worth anything to him if we stay where he puts us."

"How do you know?"

"I asked."

Bakura needed a moment to think it through, or at least, that was the reasoning Seto attributed to his silence over the next few minutes. No sound came from his direction other than the labored breaths, and Seto stayed still, not reaching for a book or his water, but waiting on Bakura to come around. Not come around entirely since it had taken Seto weeks to tolerate the truth of Pegasus's plan, but enough for Bakura to accept the basics of it.

"Why are we here, Kaiba?"

"We're where he wants us."

A heavy sigh, and then, "You know, don't you?"

"He wants us all to figure it out."

"So you do."

Seto nodded.

"And you haven't told me?"

There weren't many answers that might satisfy both Bakura and Pegasus. Seto hated that he had to consider what both of them would think of his words, but he took the moment to think them through. Bakura couldn't know, at least, not from Seto.

"I have to get to Mokuba," he said again.

Seto looked over then, finding Bakura staring at him. "You're calm," he said, shifting his trapped arms like he was trying to roll his shoulders. "So it's really bad?"

That much deserved an answer.

"It is."

"We're all going to die here."

With the eye of the camera glaring at him, Seto lifted his knees and folded his hands together to hide his mouth. "We're getting out of here," he said, only inclining his head enough in Bakura's direction to catch a glimpse of his hair. "It might not be soon, but we're not dying here."

"You're trapped," Bakura said. With the angle of his head to the camera, Seto wasn't worried about the comment. At best, Pegasus would only be able to see the top of Bakura's head.

"Not forever," Seto said, although the statement assumed Pegasus would uphold his word. "Keep Pegasus trusting you, liking you. I'll probably need that other half of yours to get us out."

"He'll take the first chance he gets."

Seto shook his head. "Pegasus will test you, him."

"I can't control him."

"You don't have to. He has to see some sort of logic."

Seto lowered his hands because he didn't expect to say anything else problematic. In fact, he wanted Pegasus to be able to read his lips while he convinced Bakura to play along.

"He doesn't listen to me."

"It's listen or die."

The words hurt. Seto forced them out with a straight face, but had to drop his gaze back down to the green border of his vision. Defending Pegasus sent chills down his arms and legs, but there was nothing to be done about it. It was all to get out, up to Mokuba, and eventually, back home. Nothing that happened in the fishbowl mattered in the end.

"How do I make him trust me?"

"I'm not the person to ask," Seto said, but added, "And he seems to trust you. It's just that other one who needs to get his shit together."

Bakura shuffled around and winced, still working his shoulders. "Pegasus doesn't trust you?"

"I wouldn't be here if he did."

The words came out harsher than Seto intended for them to, his bitterness audible.

"Sorry. He's just so casual around you."

"Zoo exhibits aren't intimidating."

"Some of them can be."

Seto stared at Bakura straight-on. "Look at my face. Do I intimidate you right now?"

"I am really, truly sorry for that."

"I'll handle it before anyone else sees. I trust you'll speak of it to no one?"

"Never."

Seto nodded once and returned to staring at the glass. He focused on the smudges that covered both sides, the handprints that had built up over the months. He could have tried cleaning it with the supplies from the bathroom, but didn't see much of a point. The worst of it was around the hatch, and those would just build up again within a few visits. More smudges meant he was less visible to Pegasus.

He tugged down on the sleeves of his shirt and stretched his legs back out.

"You wouldn't leave without us, would you?"

"I don't think it will be an option," Seto said. "When I find a way out, it will be all or nothing."


	31. Chapter 31

Bakura didn't get out of bed for at least half an hour after waking. Seto used the time to get himself ready, leaving the bathroom before his hair was dry or his glasses unfogged.

"You going to lie there until he comes?"

"Maybe."

"If you want Pegasus to help you with your shower, be my guest," Seto said. He walked back over to his bed to sit, picking the notebook off the shelf on the way down. He flipped through to his most recent page and continued the doodle of a glass cutter. He couldn't help but scribble the specifications for it in the margins, like if he wrote about it specifically enough, it would jump off the page.

"Are you sure he won't let you come?"

"Yes."

"You don't even want to ask?"

"It'd be a wasted breath."

It was easier, in a way, to blame Seto's refusal to ask on Pegasus's obvious negative conclusion rather than Seto's fear it would delay him getting upstairs. Seto was more concerned that Pegasus would like the idea of having someone else around to help Bakura with all the things he couldn't do without the use of his arms, and Seto couldn't be that person, not with Mokuba waiting.

"Then, I guess, before he gets here, thanks. And don't tell me to stop because I'm going to be grateful right now and you're going to take it."

Seto put the notebook in his lap and folded his hands on top of it. Bakura hadn't been so demanding the entire week and the attitude deserved some respect. It was a step in the right direction, at least.

"I know it wasn't easy with me in this," Bakura said, wiggling his arms to bring Seto's attention to the straitjacket. "And no one should have to do the things you have. But you did, and you didn't complain. So, thanks. I'll do my best not to think poorly of you in the future."

The smile came without Seto's approval, so he hid it away, hopefully before Bakura saw it. "I don't care what you think of me."

"No one ever got how you and Mokuba were related. I see it now. I'm sorry he is putting you two through this."

"That all?"

"I'm done."

"Good."

Seto returned to sketching. The sketch wasn't important, in fact, Seto hoped that no one would ever see it, but he worked with all the enthusiasm he could muster to complete it. Anything had to be better than accepting Bakura's gratitude. Seto's reasons for allowing Bakura to move in had been selfish, not out of pity or concern. Keeping Bakura gained trust, nothing more.

They didn't do much in the time before Pegasus arrived with a team of guards and a ladder. Pegasus let the men file past him while he hung back with two plates, using an elbow to click the speaker. "Good morning, boys!"

"Pegasus," they said together.

"Aren't you two sweet? Kaiba, help me with these."

Seto closed the notebook and put it aside. Pegasus already put both plates on the ground to start sliding them through, although Seto didn't know why he didn't just wait until the duct was down and the glass up.

"Last regular coffee today," Pegasus said. Seto didn't give it the bitter response the statement deserved, but took the plates offered and carried them over to the table while Pegasus walked out of sight for the coffee.

"This is really it?" Bakura said. "Twenty minutes and I'll be gone?"

With the speaker on, Seto couldn't say anything other than a passing, "Seems that way."

"Coffee call, Kaiba-boy."

Seto turned back around and headed for the coffee, debating whether he should ask if Pegasus actually planned to withhold it from him once Bakura left. Pegasus usually brought at least three cups a week, just enough to calm Seto's withdrawals, but to keep him wanting it. It would probably go back to that.

Pegasus had two mugs, one with Seto's coffee and the other with Bakura's tea. Seto took them both, bringing them to the table as well before sitting down beside Bakura, who had moved away from the wall into a more accommodating position.

"Well, are you ready for your birthday present?"

The guards had gotten the duct and the music player down and were moving the ladder, so Seto didn't bother getting Bakura started on his breakfast. It could wait. Pegasus wouldn't delay in getting the glass open, not for Bakura. He sipped on his own coffee and gave Bakura's tea a chance to cool.

"As I'll ever be," Bakura said. He managed a semi-pleasant expression, but the subtle shift of his shoulder spoke more than his face.

"I'm sure you'll miss our delightful Kaiba-boy, but you two have gathered enough fond memories for a while."

"The adjectives are unnecessary," Seto said.

"But so much fun. Hang tight. I know this doesn't make the most pleasing sounds while coming up. Ryou, if you need your ears covered, I'm sure dear Seto will help."

Pegasus reached over for the button to raise the wall while the guards fell into line behind him. Evidently a week hadn't been quite enough time to gain the trust needed to not be under constant watch. Pegasus didn't even bring down less of them than before, making Seto wonder if any trust had been gained at all.

Bakura winced at the wall screeched open and Seto finished off his coffee before Pegasus invaded his space again. Pegasus swept in and dropped next to Bakura on the bed, grabbing his face and turning it either way.

"You seem all in one piece."

"Did you think I'd broken him?"

Bakura shrugged out of Pegasus's hold and leaned back onto Seto. Pegasus didn't fight the movement, but reached across for Bakura's plate, making a grabbing motion with his fingers to indicate Seto should pass it over.

"I hoped not. I can never tell with you, Kaiba-boy."

Maybe Pegasus acted a certain way in front of Bakura or thought he was expected to berate Seto with every other sentence. He either was overcompensating for his anxiety about rooming them together or had decided that the past several months of effort had been worthless. Seto hoped it was the nerves.

"Hold the tea for me," Pegasus said. And Seto did, because that was how he had to function to get up to Mokuba. Denying even the simplest of orders was no longer an option.

How had he gotten himself back into this?

"You had a good week?" Pegasus asked, funneling a bite of toast into Bakura's mouth and preventing him from doing more than nod. Pegasus returned the motion while getting another bite ready, asking, "And Seto here wasn't being a pain the entire time? It's all right for you to tell the truth now. I'm here."

Bakura turned his head from the bite. "I like Kaiba," he said, still pressed against Seto's arm.

"Now, now. You don't have to say that just because he's sitting here."

Bakura didn't accept the next bite Pegasus offered, but said, more forcefully this time, "I like Kaiba."

"Isn't the world full of surprises nowadays?" Pegasus said. This time, he didn't let Bakura avoid taking another bite, and finished with that, gestured for the tea. "Seto Kaiba made a friend."

Seto stared at the bookshelf and didn't move his gaze away even as Pegasus handed the mug back over. He reached over to his own plate for an apple slice, just to have something to do while Pegasus teased him, or maybe it was insulting him in a teasing tone.

This would only be his life for as long as it took to grab Mokuba and run.

"I've got more birthday things for you in your new room. There are some magazines and color swatches in there so you can pick out how you'd like it decorated-"

Pegasus rambled throughout Bakura's breakfast. His voice drowned out the music that kept playing even though the player had been moved to the chair when the glass went up. The guards had set it speaker-down, so it sounded more of vibrations than music. Seto couldn't close his eyes to focus only on the sound because he had to watch for Pegasus's signal for the mug, but he listened for the music nonetheless, anything to drown out Pegasus.

Bakura's breakfast disappeared quickly, likely a result of Pegasus trying to get Bakura over into his new room. Or maybe the rush was to get Bakura out of Seto's room.

The door was open and Seto just sat there as a human cup holder.

Would he have tried to fight his way out before? Seto knew that his body was weaker now than it had been back in March, but if his strength hadn't faded with his muscle mass over the months, would he have tried running? Pegasus threatened him with a taser, a sedative, and a gun before, and the guards likely carried all three. Maybe they would shoot.

Pegasus did claim Seto was his favorite part of having the 'guests' under his roof. It might be the taser the first time, then a bullet.

That didn't answer Seto's question. Would he have run if Pegasus opened the glass back on the first day, even within the first week?

Seto caught himself nodding.

"Something wrong, Kaiba?" Pegasus asked.

"No."

 _Everything_. He had let himself be held prisoner for half a year. Seto would never get that time back with Mokuba. Three years almost all lost under Gozaburo, and now Pegasus was looking to do the same. He couldn't do another six months of this. Seto didn't know if he could make it the remaining two months to his birthday, to see Mokuba.

"You look upset. Are you sad our Ryou is leaving?"

"I'm not upset."

"You can at least admit that you'll be sad to lose your buffer. You'll have to go back to talking to me again all alone."

At the final word, Bakura pressed harder against Seto. The mug in Seto's hands was almost empty, probably cold by now, so Seto put it on the table. He plucked another apple slice from his plate and bit off half of it. Bakura's weight was a constant at his side–well, it wouldn't be as soon as the last few bites of eggs were gone.

It would be easier to play the game without Bakura involved. Staying on Pegasus's team was made all the harder having Bakura present since Pegasus seemed intent on attempting to crack Seto with every sentence. Seto couldn't work with that Pegasus.

"You two are both so quiet this morning. Today's a good day."

"I didn't sleep," Bakura said.

It was a lie. Seto had stayed in the bed with him until he fell asleep every night, but if Pegasus watched the cameras, he could just assume Seto moved to the floor too soon. or Bakura had woken up again after It didn't matter. Seto wasn't going to say anything to contradict the lie.

"You can nap after we get you settled in. I'm going to try to keep today's schedule the same as normal, so you'll have a few hours before I come back with dinner."

Pegasus set down the emptied plate. Seto's gaze moved down to it for a moment before it flashed back to the bookshelf. Bakura leaving was good. Seto benefited from it. He got what he needed from Bakura's stay and now it was time to end it.

"I trust that you two have said any goodbyes. We've got to get going so I can give Ryou here the lay of the land."

Pegasus stood as Ryou looked to Seto, the unspoken question evident in the slight gap of his lips.  _Don't ask._  Seto would have to say no if Pegasus somehow consented.  _Don't make me do that to you._

"Keep him under control," Seto said.

"I hope you see Mokuba soon."

Seto nodded and helped Bakura to his feet. He didn't wobble anymore or squint at the light, but stood as straight as the jacket allowed and gave Seto a small smile. A hand on his arm began pulling him away and he mouthed a final, "Thank you."

Pegasus and Ryou crossed the threshold of the room. With a wave of his free hand, Pegasus summoned Croquet into Seto's sight.

"Kaiba, none of them will speak to you. Tell Croquet what things need to go. I'll change out the sheets tonight."

Seto scratched his neck just under his ear while Pegasus and Bakura walked out of sight. Croquet held a laundry basket, so Seto went ahead and stripped the sheets from the bed. If they were under orders not to talk to him, Seto wasn't going to embarrass himself trying. With the limited funds he had hidden away for emergencies, he couldn't bribe them all with more than what Pegasus must have been paying them. And Croquet would never budge.

"Do I have to go back to the same number of blankets as before?"

Croquet dipped his head as if to say yes.

So everything aside from the comforter ended up in the basket, except for the mattress pad which Seto tossed in the hallway, hitting one of the guards' legs with it. While Croquet carried the basket back into the hallway, Seto went into the bathroom to collect Bakura's things: toothbrush, razor, cup. He passed them off to Croquet and glanced around the room before picking up the mug and plate, stacking them and holding them out.

"That's all."

Croquet did a quick glance around the room, settling too long on Seto's face and probably the glasses. Like Pegasus warned, Croquet said nothing as he left.

One of the guards was instructed to lower the glass while another produced a taser.

Seto threw up a hand and turned around as if to show that he wouldn't make a run for it. There were five of them out there and he hadn't done more than walk a few steps in six months. He wasn't fighting only to be thrown right back in.

Behind him, the glass came down. Seto took a heavy breath and stared at the blank, white wall in front of him. He traced the lines of painted grout and the few spots of hardened paint drops and felt his vision blur. But the blur was just white–empty, flat. The wall hit the floor and Seto's ears echoed with static, the vaguest of sounds coming through the holes in the glass.

Three times now he'd let them close that door on him.

Instead of hanging around for the duct to be installed, Seto hid out in the bathroom. He washed his face, wishing he hadn't already gone through his morning routine, but distracted himself by scrubbing the small vanity. Bakura hadn't had that many things, but the space seemed much larger without the extra items.

After finishing with the sink, Seto still heard the unforgiving clatters of the duct work, so he leaned back against the wall by the door and waited. The only color in the bathroom came from the brass handles on the sink and that held Seto's gaze. The dim light overhead reflected poorly off it even after Seto had scrubbed it.

Pegasus should have given any color to the space. For an artist, Pegasus's design aesthetic needed work. Even the darker spot from Seto's blood popped out in bitter contrast to the white. Pegasus must have noticed when he brought Bakura in on that first day.

It didn't matter now. His time with Bakura was in the past and there was no point in thinking any longer on it. There was just Pegasus now. That made it easier.

And quieter, but Seto couldn't think about that.

Seto cracked his neck and counted the seconds between hearing noises from the glass and the silence that followed. He counted to three hundred before opening the door to an equally white room.

They were gone and Seto was alone again at last.

He turned to the only source of color aside from the faded copies of Seto's books, the painting. The brightness of the blues and greens glowed. Seto had to turn away from it and to the bare mattress. Seto covered it with the one blanket he had been left and picked up one of his textbooks, settling in with the pillow behind him to read.

* * *

"Well, Kaiba-boy, are you enjoying your newly regained solitude?"

"I was until you showed up."

"Are we back to this now? And here I thought you were warming up to me."

Pegasus took the chair, for once having nothing to bring down with him during his visit. Seto already had his breakfast that morning, the sheets were likely being washed, and it wasn't time for any evidence of Mokuba's safety. Pegasus visited for discussion alone.

"Aren't we?" Seto said. "You seemed like you missed my  _delightful_ company."

Seto kept his attention on the book, turning a page even though he hadn't finished reading the one he was on. Bakura was gone, so Seto didn't need to play along to the extent he had been. At least he could find out if Pegasus had changed his views on Seto over the course of the last week.

"Someone sounds bitter."

It didn't justify an answer, and so didn't receive one. Seto put more effort into reading rather than simply skimming his eyes over the words. Pegasus wouldn't leave because he was being ignored and Seto couldn't afford to lose more time than he had, but he wouldn't resort to pleading for Pegasus to restore their past dialogue. Maybe talking about his own childhood bored him and Pegasus missed the constant, antagonizing nature of their discussions.

"Are you this angry with me?"

"Do I look angry?" Seto said, giving a little glance up to display the neutrality of his expression before returning to the book.

"You do. Your actual angry is much different from your peacocking."

Seto snapped the book closed, as much as a paperback could snap, and gave Pegasus the attention he so clearly wanted. Seto ran his tongue over his teeth before realizing what a clear sign of his irritation it was, and that only caused the anger to build.

"What do you want from me? I did your babysitting. I didn't spill your secret. I'm carrying on pointless conversations about your youth and you're still giving me grief over my attitude. What more could you possible take from me?"

Sliding back in the chair, Pegasus interlaced his fingers and rested them neatly on his lap. "Don't be so testy-" he paused to give a little, degrading laugh. "-We've been doing so well."

"I'm not going to put up with you insulting me."

"You'll tolerate what I tell you to."

"What changed?"

"You did."

"For what? Doing what you asked me to do?"

Pegasus kept up the playful smirk and relaxed posture while Seto's entire essence tensed. Babysitting Bakura had been supposed to build trust, not shatter everything Seto hoped to gain and more. It wasn't how the plan had been meant to go.

"Ryou enjoyed your company."

"According to you, my company is more enjoyable than anyone's."

"What did you do to merit his trust so quickly?"

"I didn't lock him in a hole for half a year."

"But he isn't asking after any of the others. He's only asking for you. 'Couldn't Kaiba move in here with me? He'd be secure here too. Let him stay with me until he can move with Mokuba.' He's not once mentioned anyone else."

Seto wanted a distraction, something that would divide his attention from the consistent heat of Pegasus's eye. The confidence Seto felt so regularly before all this faded with every blink, because when his eyes reopened, he was hit with the shock of green and the awareness that Pegasus wouldn't take him seriously with the new set of frames. He turned Seto into a joke in a single move that followed him everywhere.

"I'm not you."

"No. If you were, you'd be seeing Little Mokuba twice daily."

Although the glasses would temper his glare, Seto sent it Pegasus's way.

"Oh calm down. I'll stop when you do," Pegasus said.

"I told you I wanted to make this work," Seto said. "You're starting the insults."

"And you're in a cage. This isn't a partnership, Kaiba. Stop trying to make us keep to the same set of rules."

Seto closed his mouth before letting any unscrutinized comment escape. The fact frustrated Seto, burned at him, ate away at everything he had been working to build himself toward, but it was true. Pegasus stole Seto's say in the matter. As much as Seto wanted to find a routine, a set of rules, a method to the insanity, there was nothing to be found. Pegasus's word was law, even if it changed daily.

But accepting that meant accepting surrender.

"Does that put us back into discussions of your childhood?"

"No, I'd like to talk about Ryou."

What Seto wanted didn't matter. But he took a deep breath and nodded, looking for a comfortable position to ride out the conversation. It would happen no matter what he did to derail it.

"What do you want to know?"

"Why he trusts you."

Seto lifted a shoulder. "I'm the first person he's seen in half a year?"

"That doesn't equate to trust."

"I was here. It's nothing more."

"I've been there for half a year."

"You put him there."

The pleasant expression Seto hated drifted into something resembling anger. He crossed a leg over the other and rolling his ankle around in circles. "It took you a day."

"You didn't expect to keep him locked in a hole for half a year, tied up like that, and gain his trust? You've tortured him."

"Do you trust me?"

_No._

"Not yet."

"But enough that you know better than to lie to me," Pegasus said, leaning his head forward as he spoke. "But my point, Seto, is that you've been here as long as he has been and you're coming around. I thought he was until this last week."

"I didn't say anything."

"You didn't help matters either."

The words slipped out before Seto could get a hold of them. "Next time, write me a rule list. Or script it like you did Mokuba's video."

"You're in some kind of mood today."

To compensate for his accidental slip, Seto went with honesty. "I'm frustrated."

"So am I, but I'm at least trying to be civil."

Seto nearly argued that he was trying, but that would be admitting to failing, so he kept silent on it. His efforts amounted to nothing, but Pegasus promised a full day for his birthday, so Seto would have to keep trying and failing until then. Pegasus had to be a holiday devotee. Maybe he would let Seto and Mokuba spend those together as well.

Which would mean nearly a year of Mokuba's life missed.

"I don't know what to tell you about Bakura."

"Start from the beginning."


	32. Chapter 32

Pegasus stopped with the cart outside of Yugi's door and surveyed the party favors scattered on it. They all received fair warning during the morning visit and now it was time to celebrate. A person didn't turn twenty-eight every day. He was starting his twenty-ninth year, which, at the end of his twenty-ninth year, would be the first complete one he spent with his visitors. The first year not alone since-

He didn't knock. Instead, he plucked a deck of cards from the pile of birthday fun and swept into Yugi's little room.

"Good afternoon, Yugi-boy!"

"Happy birthday," Yugi said again. He stayed on the window seat with his cards in hand, but at least glanced in Pegasus's direction. That was a start, a little, barely meaningful something. At least his eyes lacked any traces of redness.

"I thought we could play a game together," Pegasus said. After seven months of trying to get Yugi to open up to him, Pegasus finally had a reason he thought even Yugi-boy couldn't ignore.

It was his birthday.

Yugi's expression dipped into a frown, but he set down his own cards and stepped over to the table. He took his usual seat and swung his legs against the chair, bare toes grazing the carpet.

"Any preferences?"

A small shake of his head. Pegasus expected the answer and sat to cut the deck, shuffling with ease before dividing out the cards.

"War then. Simple enough."

Yugi ran his thumb across the top of his half of the deck and glanced back out the window where the sun had dipped into a bold yellow.

"We'll have none of that today, Yugi-boy. Let's see your first card."

Pegasus flipped over a two and Yugi a jack.

"Ah, that doesn't bode too well for me," Pegasus said, pushing both cards over to Yugi. If he wasn't going to talk, this would be a long session, and still Pegasus's first stop of the night. The celebration needed to get off on a bright note, not this drab depression that seemed to have settled around all his guests.

"Wouldn't you rather have a party with everyone?" Yugi asked. He couldn't raise his face to Pegasus, but kept flipping over cards.

"That would be a present for you all and not me. I think I've done enough of that, wouldn't you say?"

"I was just asking."

"I don't mind the questions. I'll encourage them in fact. Anything else you'd like to pose, hypotheticals you'd like addressed?"

"No," Yugi said, then pressed his lips together while winning another hand. His deflation certainly dampened Pegasus's mood, but there must have been a way to liven Yugi's spirit. Pegasus frowned at the thought of a spirit and graciously lost the next flip, passing over the cards. He was already down half his stack. Of course Yugi would end up winning.

"If you recall," Pegasus said, losing another hand. "-I gave you a perfectly lovely birthday. The least you could do is give me a touch of energy."

"Sorry. I'm tired."

"That's hardly an excuse. You could have slept before I got here, and you'll be able to sleep after."

He looked ready to cry, but thankfully didn't. Pegasus hadn't specifically said there would be no tears on his birthday, but he hoped the general idea had come across in his list of minor rules.

The most notable, of course, be nice.

Crying did not fit into that category.

Pegasus gave the room a passing glance while Yugi's fingertips fluttered over the cards. It had become cluttered over the months, all the gifts sorted out into piles according to how often Yugi used them. Surveillance showed him almost always by the window, and Pegasus thought to check the area for anything suspicious. Hopefully he just liked the view of the island. It was a lovely scene.

"So," Yugi said, placing another card and waiting for Pegasus to do the same. "You're twenty-nine?"

"Twenty-eight. What's with you lot and trying to get me into an early grave?"

The question caused Yugi's face to lower and Pegasus's mood to darken. No, he couldn't allow a silly expression to affect his birthday. They were going to have fun and not talk about death any longer. Enough thoughts of death flitted around Pegasus's head as it was.

Pegasus dropped his card and won a hand. His own pitiful stack was still woefully short of Yugi's, but Pegasus plucked them up regardless.

Yugi won the next five hands, each flip slower than the last. His hands shook and Yugi bit at his lip, a clear signal that he was about to make a request Pegasus couldn't agree to. And certainly nothing said with that expression would regard the birthday celebration underway.

"We can go ahead with your dinner," Pegasus said once he ran out of cards. "It's a lasagna tonight. You liked that last time, didn't you?"

Yugi nodded. He was always so agreeable, so depressed. Losing an ancient spirit indwelling his body shouldn't have been that heavy of a loss.

He left the room for a break from the heavy aura hovering around Yugi, pausing at the cart before reaching down for the dinner plate. Playing cards hadn't worked. Nothing worked to get Yugi to snap out of this daze. At least if he fought back, the conversation could have some give and take. There was only so much Pegasus could give.

There was one more thing he could try giving. If that failed, then Yugi-boy might need a demotion.

Pegasus grabbed a checkerboard in addition to the lasagna. They hadn't played checkers before and it required more effort than War. It wouldn't be livening anything up, but Pegasus doubted that Yugi would go for a game of Monopoly.

"All right, Yugi-boy," Pegasus said as he reentered the room, stepped to the table, and emptied his hands upon it. "I'll make a deal with you. You celebrate my birthday how you believe I'd like it to be celebrated, and I'll let you spend tomorrow with someone else."

Yugi's eyes widened, which every time Pegasus witnessed just baffled him because they were already so large. "Really?"

"That's what I said."

The nods that followed came quickly. "Who?"

Pegasus shrugged and reclaimed his previous seat, nudging the plate over to Yugi. "It will depend on how the rest of my night plays out."

"So," Yugi started, reaching for his plate and taking a bite only to go on with his mouth full. "What are you doing with the others?"

"Oh, I haven't made any particular plans. You lot like to throw curveballs at me at every chance. No party hats, unfortunately. I suppose I could have gotten ice cream for everyone."

"Are we going to play checkers?"

"If you want to. Finding a good two player game is difficult, unless you'd like to make use of those cards of yours."

Yugi took another bite, this time swallowing before answering. "Checkers is fine. Dueling wouldn't be the same-" paused, then more quietly, "Checkers is fun."

"As soon as you're finished eating then," Pegasus said. And while Yugi ate, he set up the board so it would be ready for him. After playing chess with Kaiba for so long, such a simple setup seemed wrong, but today wasn't a day for complications. Simple worked so long as Yugi played along.

"It's my birthday," Pegasus said while Yugi dropped his fork to his plate and pushed it away. "So I go first."

Yugi scooted his chair a bit closer and leaned up. The poor boy was almost as short as he had been all those years ago, wide-eyed and sixteen, wearing that backpack around the island in search of his grandfather's soul. Three years hadn't changed much.

Yugi tucked his feet underneath him so he could lean across the table more easily, matching each of Pegasus's moves with a better one of his own. Watching Yugi win game after game, no matter what type it was, only served as a reminder that Pegasus never stood a chance. His strategy shouldn't have been based on a game, but he couldn't have known that Yugi was incapable of losing.

At games, Pegasus reminded himself. Yugi had lost this. And he knew he lost. He lost his Puzzle, his freedom, his friends. Pegasus was all he had left.

Pegasus smiled as he made his next move.

"Are there any games you're bad at?"

"Not really."

"I guess you're too young for gambling. I wonder if you would have been as lucky there as well. Perhaps you could have made the leap from dueling to the poker scene."

"Yeah," Yugi said with a forced smile, jumping two of Pegasus's pieces at once. "Maybe."

When Pegasus had a single piece left in play he spent several moves evading capture. He couldn't keep hopping along forever, but Yugi's attempts to win were half-hearted at best. Perhaps he wasn't as interested in being reunited with someone as he let on.

"I'm sure you can do better than this."

"You could just give up," Yugi said, using a finger to slide one of his pieces a bit closer to Pegasus's last one.

"You should know me better than that, Yugi-boy. I'll fight to the last breath."

The final piece was lost and Yugi moved away from the board. Like Ryou, Yugi's shoulders lifted when he felt uncomfortable, and in that moment, they were up by his ears. That wouldn't do.

"How about you pick what we do next?"

Yugi turned to look at the window and then back with his eyes too big. His lips parted and closed a few times, a few "ums" and "uhs" slipping out before he bit his lip and stared at the edge of the table.

"I don't know-" Yugi paused to look around the piles of objects he had formed around his room, scanning each one a brief moment before moving onto the next. "We could, um, play hangman?"

So much for no more references to death.

"All right. But you have to guess first."

Shoulders up, Yugi slid off the chair and knelt at the foot of his bed where all the notebooks and pens were stacked and teetering to the side. Pegasus tilted his head to match their angle and took in Yugi's frantic motions that he was trying to disguise as simply rushed. Perhaps threatening Yugi was the proper method. There would only be so many times he could be bribed with seeing another guest and this moping state had gone on long enough.

"Hm, what word shall I choose first?" Pegasus asked. He took the offered writing supplies and flipped to the back page of the notebook, drawing the gallows and marking down eight lines.

"One word, Yugi-boy."

* * *

Téa's television was on, playing through the title screen of a movie. Pegasus noted the title – _Anastasia_ – before calling for Téa and then checked in the bedroom for her.

"Anyone home?"

"Just a second!"

Pegasus frowned and followed her voice into the kitchenette. She was in the midst of stirring something over the stove top with her back to him. Although he had done so that morning, Pegasus checked the pantry and refrigerator to make sure he wasn't running low on anything.

"Happy birthday," she said flatly. "You like cartoons."

It wasn't a question.

"Are we watching a movie?"

"You said you hadn't seen it."

She turned with the ladle in her hand and a few drops of soup dripped to the floor. She glanced down at the them, knocked a dishtowel off the counter, and scrubbed with her foot.

"Watching a movie is hardly befitting of a party."

When she lifted both of her hands, more drops splattered to the floor. "It's hardly a party."

"We do the best with what we can. Maybe by next year, we can throw a shindig for the ages."

Téa's mouth opened, then closed. She nearly tossed the ladle back into the pot so she could cross her arms. "Did you have something else in mind?"

"I haven't given it too much thought. I didn't think you would enjoy a piñata."

"Then we can watch a movie. I'd offer you dinner but I'm pretty sure it's Mokuba's night. Wouldn't want to deprive him of anything more."

Pegasus left her at the stove to sit on the couch and wait. He started the movie before she had fixed herself a bowl and joined him, sitting as far to the other side as she could. She reached for a half-full bottle of water on the coffee table and after taking a sip, set it beside her on the couch.

"I like cartoon series," Pegasus said. "Not simply anything animated."

"Are you going to complain the whole way through?"

"If I choose to. It's my birthday, after all."

"Choose not to then."

Pegasus settled in to watch, glad he hadn't decided to wear a party hat. He imagined in drooping down the side of his head, its soul sucked out by the rudeness of his guests. They were supposed to be the good ones. And Kaiba was next, which would only have deflated it even further.

Oh, this was a musical cartoon.

Téa rocked to the music very faintly, and Pegasus thought he heard her humming the melody, but it could have been his imagination.

When the man with the excessively long beard raised his magical glowstick, Téa scratched at her right eye. Pegasus wanted to read nothing into it, but her posture was so tense it was hard not to.

And there was an entire number about getting out of a terrible situation that Pegasus couldn't see as being that bad. These characters had coats, and good heavens, the main one wore a tie. He couldn't be doing that poorly. Dimitri or whatever his name was should have been more grateful for what he had, even if he supposedly was some sort of conman.

Hm. A dog. Maybe the children could do with having a pet. So long as Pegasus didn't have to feed it or clean up after it, it might be a good addition for those who couldn't interact with the other guests just yet. Might teach them a little responsibility. Brighten up their days a little so they weren't so glum during his visits.

When the memories began to dance, Pegasus turned to Téa. "You're a dancer?"

"I was."

Her dismissal was curt and without so much as a glance.

Pegasus crossed a leg over the other and his arms followed across his chest. He might have expected Téa to pick a movie with random songs or dancing, but all this lying and deceit was unexpected. For all the grief she had given him about not being upfront with his motives, she seemed to be enjoying the lies in fiction.

The movie wore on and family was reunited and all was right in their little world. There was just the stall for the couple to realize they were meant to be together, and what cartoon didn't have a happy ending? There was the dramatic change of heart, the choice between family and love.

Love always won out.

 _Fiction plays to the heroes while life favors no one_.

Pegasus chuckled as the little bat spoke.  _This can only end in tears._  Wasn't that always how it went? Wasn't that why people turned to fiction, to get the happy endings denied in reality? Reality bore no respect for love, but ripped it away at the first chance.

The credits rolled and Pegasus sat up a little straighter. It had taken up their time and he had to head down to see Kaiba. Checking his watch, he noticed that he was actually running late. And all for some movie he hadn't even cared to see because it just reminded him that it was another birthday without her.

She didn't make an effort to give a goodbye and Pegasus didn't compensate. He slammed the door behind him and turned the series of locks.

He grabbed the cart and pushed it out in front of him for the elevator, jamming his thumb against the button. The guards to his right pointedly ignored him, even going as far as to turn their heads in the opposite direction, which meant they were looking away from their charges. Would it have been too much to ask for a simple happy birthday from them? What was he paying them for?

In the elevator, he gathered his hair over his shoulder and tried to tie it back, only to realize he hadn't brought a band for it. He let the strands fall through his fingers before brushing them back, tapping his foot until the doors opened.

The cart stayed in the elevator for Croquet to pick up and carry over to his next stop. Pegasus grabbed Kaiba's plate, headed down the hall, and knocked on the glass before turning on the speaker, only to hear the sound of the shower running. He shoved Kaiba's dinner through the hatch and locked it with purpose, taking his seat and glaring through the smudged glass to wait for him. Of course he couldn't just have showered earlier. No, he had to wait until Pegasus planned on celebrating.

Spiteful child.

Pegasus focused on one of the hand-shaped smudges. The cleaning supplies for the bathroom would take care of it, but it had been there for weeks now. What else did he have to do all day that kept him so busy that he couldn't take ten minutes to clean the glass?

Shower, it would seem.

Pegasus checked his watch. Kaiba would miss half his time slot at this rate, and that meant Pegasus would lose half his time with Kaiba. At least Kaiba had more motivation to play along. At least, Pegasus thought that he did. If he wanted to see Mokuba that badly, he shouldn't have hid in the bathroom.

It took five minutes and thirty-three seconds for Kaiba to emerge, hair wet and glasses fogged. He gave a short glance over to Pegasus before sitting on the edge of his bed.

"You chose now to shower?"

"I don't have a clock."

Pegasus bit back the anger and tamed it a touch. "Don't play stupid."

"Hard to celebrate with a wall in the way."

"So we shouldn't celebrate your birthday then?"

Kaiba rolled his eyes, which behind the glasses, was almost too amusing to take seriously. Pegasus might have teased had it not been for the situation. He was angry and couldn't be distracted by the silliness of Kaiba in green glasses.

Pegasus watched the weight of the breath slipping out between Kaiba's lips. His typical perfect posture sagged and his head leaned to one side. The fog from the bathroom dissipated, leaving a shocking flash of blue behind the green.

_Her eyes lit up when she saw the portrait, framed in gold and met with a bouquet of white roses. Her hand found his without having to search, squeezing in delight. He observed from his height and watched the excitement only grow-_

"Pegasus?"

"You can celebrate with me for eight more minutes."

Pegasus tried not to be too bitter that it wasn't the full fifteen. At least Kaiba didn't look smug in his disobedience. His lips turned downward, not too severely, just enough that his expression couldn't be mistaken for neutral.

"I expected more celebration from you," Kaiba said.

"Yes, well, planning activities for one's own birthday isn't exactly the height of joy, is it?"

"I wouldn't know."

"No, I'm sure Mokuba has always planned your birthdays, and you his."

Kaiba scooted to one side so he could lean his shoulder against the wall. He ran his fingers back through his hair, shaking out a few drops of water in the process. "I don't celebrate mine," he said and Pegasus wished for the Eye to disprove the obvious lie.

"No? What a shame. And twenty this year. That's one to remember."

"Why does it matter?" Kaiba asked. "It's not like I'll need to remember to update my license."

"You are in some sort of mood today, which, as I'm fairly certain I gave you a heads up about, is my birthday."

Kaiba took off his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose, his fingertips tracing the outline of his lightly closed eyes. Pegasus gazed at the sharp angles of his face and wondered when he had gotten so thin. His skin was too pale, gaunt and purple above his cheekbones. The glasses normally kept the bags covered, but now that he had seen them, Pegasus doubted he could lose the image.

"How should I be acting?" Kaiba asked, putting his glasses back on and covering the purple with green.

"Not like a zombie. What has you so tired today?"

Pegasus nearly had to leave when he caught Kaiba's expression, the gentle part of his lips, the creases at the corners of his eyes, the absolute exhaustion painted on his face as clearly as a canvas.

"I've been here seven months."

"Yes. I can count."

Kaiba couldn't even form a proper glower, but surrendered back to the fatigue. "I've lost seven months of his life."

Pegasus tried a laugh to lift the glum hovering throughout the space. "And that's affecting you physically?"

"It didn't affect you?"

Pegasus stood, knocking the chair back against the wall and rattling the pieces inside the chess board. Not today. He didn't have to deal with this.

"Eat those protein bars you're hoarding up. You're pathetically sallow."

And before he stepped away, Pegasus added, "And clean that fucking smudge."

He smashed his palm against the speaker before heading back up the hall and to the door leading to Ryou's room. He considered taking the lights or the music, but left both on. Delaying would only give him more time to stare at Kaiba, to see the shriveled form that used to inspire awe.

_They had made her face too pale, the makeup a shade too light. Her eyeshadow didn't match on either side, the right too dark and the left covering too large of a space. Her hair was flat, her skin pallid. She was dead._

_No._

Pegasus straightened his suit and marched down the hall to a door leading to Ryou's room. Not today. He was going to have a birthday celebration if he had to pry it out of them.


	33. Chapter 33

Pegasus rapped on Ryou's door before entering in the access code for the first lock, then produced the key for the second. His exhale lasted as long as he could manage, forcing out all the air in his lungs before allowing himself to breathe again. This would be fine. The Ring was up in the safe and the next fifteen minutes would be with sweet Ryou.

Ryou's room was small, everything open so there were no obstacles for him to get through. The bathroom area was in the far corner, an open shower and automatic toilet along with a pedal-operated sink. His bed in the corner across from it with the comforter stapled to the wooden bed frame so the blankets couldn't fall to the floor but the sheets could still be changed. The kitchenette stood in the farthest corner from the bathroom, mostly there for Pegasus's convenience, but with a water fountain for Ryou.

"Happy birthday?" Ryou said. He sat on the couch in the middle of the room, legs pulled up to him and posture still hopelessly small.

"Thank you. Anything particular in mind for your dinner?"

Ryou shook his head. The braid Pegasus had pulled it into after his shower that morning had mostly fallen loose, so before making dinner, he first walked around the couch to bring Ryou's hair back into a ponytail. Ryou flinched at the touch but then froze until Pegasus finished.

"How about we just go with a sandwich tonight? That won't take too long."

Without waiting for Ryou's approval of the idea, Pegasus headed over to the refrigerator. Fifteen minutes was really only enough time for dinner, not enough for celebrating, but Pegasus could make do. He left Kaiba early, so the extra time could roll into Ryou's. They couldn't play a game or anything, but at least talking to Ryou would be better than the others.

"How's Kaiba?"

Pegasus slammed the door closed after grabbing the sandwich meat. "Perfectly intolerable. But you should know all about that."

Ryou would deny it, but he should know. After reviewing most of the footage from their week together, Pegasus didn't know what to make of the Kaiba on film. He certainly wasn't the same man Pegasus dealt with day in and out. How difficult would it have been to muster up a little enthusiasm?

"Isn't his birthday soon?"

The knife clattered on the countertop as Pegasus went back to the fridge for mayonnaise. "It is."

"Does he still get to see Mokuba?"

"Do you have questions unrelated to the Kaibas?" Even Pegasus heard how harsh his voice sounded, so he took a moment and a breath before meeting Ryou's wide eyes with his own pleasant expression. "That's still the plan."

"Did you," Ryou said, and he pressed his lips together while turning and taking in the full view of the room before going on. "-do anything fun with the others?"

"A few games with Yugi-boy, a movie with dear Téa."

He went back to preparing dinner and thinking up a new subject. There were so little options for Ryou to spend his time, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing to bring him a television. It would certainly be better than showering, sleeping, eating, existing. If he could have been placed upstairs, a window might have helped.

Maybe some fish. Watching them could be interesting.

Pegasus finished with the sandwich and carried it over to the couch. If Ryou was still hungry after he finished, then he could have something else, a handful of carrots or a serving of yogurt. Until then, Pegasus sat down beside him and offered up half the sandwich.

Ryou had to lower his knees. His lips parted softly before opening wide enough for the bite. He never could make eye contact with Pegasus during these more intimate moments, and today was no different. His gaze lifted up to the far corner, up near where the camera was mounted and watching. Ryou's jaw shivered every time he closed his mouth, and every few bites, a larger shiver moved from his shoulders to his hips.

The room wasn't that cold, even for being just off the dungeons. The heating mistake that had been made with Kaiba's room had not been repeated.

"He hasn't been back in a while," Pegasus said, timing the question while Bakura was chewing so he could answer between bites.

"I guess I should expect a visit," Ryou said.

"Perhaps he's simply grown bored of popping in."

The faintest raise of his lips distracted Pegasus from presenting another bite.

"I don't think it works that way."

"Well, we can always hope, right?"

Half the sandwich gone and Ryou still wouldn't look at him. The fidgeting only increased the longer it took and Pegasus found himself slowing down while trying to figure out the cause of it. Certainly he couldn't be uncomfortable with how close they were sitting, not after the past seven months. This setup had them practically distant in comparison.

"Is something wrong?" Pegasus asked.

Ryou shook his head.

"You aren't lying to me?"

Ryou shook his head again, this time flitting his eyes toward Pegasus for the shortest of moments. "Why won't you let Kaiba move in here?"

Gravity grabbed the plate in Pegasus's grip and pulled it toward his lap. "Excuse me?"

"I still can't wash my hair or brush my teeth or eat without you. Having him here-"

"Kaiba was never meant to be a permanent solution. Just a convenience."

"But he's alone and I am, and I need hel-"

"I'm here. On my birthday. Hand-feeding you. How much more help could you possibly need?"

The tears built and Pegasus forced himself to ignore them. Ryou cried a great deal more than situations called for, a mixture of the fear that wouldn't go away and the exhaustion still lingering from months underground. He would get through it. They would all get through it.

"Be honest," Pegasus said, failing to find the strength to lift the plate. "You don't want Kaiba-boy for company. I'm sure he's a dreadful bore."

"No, he was nice," Ryou said. Pegasus heard the force behind the statement, as weak as it was, and it took him back. Ryou and Kaiba had bonded too much. He hoped that time would lessen Ryou's attachment, but clearly it was just as strong as before.

Kaiba wasn't nice. Kaiba had probably never been nice in his life.

"When Kaiba moves, it will be to join his brother. He wouldn't risk that for you."

"Have you asked?"

"I'm not asking," Pegasus said. He set the plate down on the coffee table and continued. "It isn't Kaiba's choice where he goes. It isn't your choice who you stay with. Do you want to go back to that hole?"

Tears fell as Ryou shook his head.

"Then forget Kaiba."

Ryou lowered his face, angling away so Pegasus only could see the curve of his nose and cheeks. It didn't work that way. They couldn't just choose when to tolerate him.

"Look at me."

Ryou did, his eyes red with the tears he had been holding back, or trying to and failing. He breathed in once through his nose, not quite a sniffle but about there.

"We're not going to do this. I let you spend a week with Kaiba because you needed out of that hole. You're not in a hole anymore. This is better, isn't it?"

Ryou nodded, but it wasn't good enough.

"Right, Ryou?"

"Right," he whispered.

"And you don't want to go back to your last room, right?"

"Right."

"You want to stay in here?"

"Yes."

"Then stop asking about Kaiba."

Ryou nodded and lowered his gaze once more. Pegasus left the plate where it was, thoroughly uninterested in helping Ryou finish his dinner. How could none of them keep to a brighter subject after being specifically requested?

Ryou could figure out the rest of the meal for himself.

Pegasus left without another word and headed down the narrow hallway to get to Joey. As instructed, Croquet brought down Joey's plate from the cart to wait on his arrival so Pegasus wouldn't need to make the trip back for it. Pegasus almost regretted having made the request because he had all this energy needing to be burned.

He didn't know why he bothered with a plate. It couldn't fit through the bars. A plastic bag would have done the job more efficiently. At least then Joey would have a trash receptacle and wouldn't resort to throwing his garbage into the hall.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Wheeler."

Joey finished off a water bottle and threw it forward where it bounced off the bars and back toward him. After having lost his voice the week before, Joey's new favorite greeting was lifting two perfectly impolite fingers and glaring. It was a tired effort and one easily ignored.

"Well, are you ready to move up to your new room just yet?"

"Room's fine," Joey said, the rasp of his voice low and quiet. The chains rattled as he adjusted his position, and Pegasus watched a long trail of shivers take over his chest down to his legs.

"Mr. Wheeler," Pegasus said. Being severe had never worked before, but all that was left was a now-vacant hole in the ground. "This has gone on long enough. Shall I bribe you some more or threaten? Which will get you to think for once?"

"Whatever you want ain't worth this," Joey said, and Pegasus almost agreed with him.

"I want to move you into a nicer room. I don't think that's too much to ask for."

Joey's arms wrapped around himself as best as he could with the chains. The dungeon was cold and lacked the heating installed over in Kaiba and Ryou's rooms. His dirty jacket couldn't be doing him much good after all this time. Pegasus wasn't sure what he would do if they couldn't kick whatever illness Joey happened across next.

"That's a load of shit."

Pegasus scratched at his eyebrow with a pinky and restrained the long string of unpleasantries trying to work their way to his tongue.

"You've tried just about everything save of going along with me. How do you know I'm lying?"

"You're made o'solid lies. Don't need some creepy eye for that."

The hand up by Pegasus's face lifted, palm up, in disbelief. Three years and they all were still convinced he wanted that artifact back. Only for that spirit.

Although-

No. Just for the one reason.

"How about today, just for today, you give me the opportunity to disprove the sentiment? I'll even offer a trade." Pegasus checked his watch, having to angle it back to catch what little light could be found in the dungeons. "Thirteen minutes of conversation, at least semi-polite conversation, and I'll bring down some blankets and pillows. A whole cot if you'd like."

He had promised himself that he wouldn't reward their bad behavior, but half a year and a terrible birthday in had Pegasus ready to surrender. They won. Maybe they weren't worth saving.

"How long you going to drag this on for?"

It was more of a start than Pegasus had gotten in a while, so he took the chance. "You seem to be under the impression that anyone else is holding out. They're working with me. You're all alone in this pointless struggle, Mr. Wheeler."

"See? You're fulla shit. I'm supposta believe Kaib's playing house with you?"

"You couldn't have picked a better phrasing for it. He's quite the nanny."

With his face cast in shadow, Joey's laugh was only noticeable in his sharp exhale. The energy to laugh was gone. Honestly, that he could talk and shout as much as he did came as a surprise with every visit. Once he got out, if he got out, Pegasus could see him slipping right back into this resistance act. There had to be a way around it. If he could tame a dragon, then Pegasus could tame a street rat.

"I'll believe that when I see it," Joey said. "'Sides, you got the kid, dontcha? Nothing Kaib' says is real if you've got him."

Pegasus frowned, glad for the backlighting to mask his expression. He didn't want to be the villain here, but if they forced him to it, there was no use resisting.

"Shall I bring in Serenity as well? Oh, what nicknames shall I come up with for her? Our lovely Serenity? Our helpless Serenity? Maybe-"

Joey was on his feet and at the length of his chain before Pegasus came up with another.

"I'll kill you. You get anywhere close to Ren and I'll rip out the other eye."

"How  _ever_  shall you do that? You can't even hit me now. Maybe if you were in a better accommodation, you would have a better chance at it. Alas, you can't do a thing to stop me."

Joey pulled and leaned against the shackles, which if they hadn't broken by now certainly wouldn't just because he decided to be a little angry. What right did he have to be angry? He took—

Pegasus closed his eyes and popped his neck to either side. "I don't want or need your sister, Mr. Wheeler. Continue to act out and I'll have little choice but to remind you of your place."

_You seemed to think hers was the grave._

"Now," Pegasus went on, forcing the thought from his head before doing something rash. "Are you going to have a conversation with me in our remaining … nine minutes? Or should I sent a boat back to the mainland?"

These brothers and their siblings. They'd be the death of him.

Joey gave the chains a final jerk before settling a glare on Pegasus that followed him until they were both seated, Joey on the floor and Pegasus on the fold-out chair in the hall.

"Very good. Now. Let's talk about getting you out of here and to where your chances of causing an unspeakable travesty to my body greatly increase. How do you think you might go about doing that?"

Joey pulled both sides of his jacket more tightly around him and slouched against the stone wall. Pegasus stared at his sneakers and wondered whether the soles had worn down during his constant struggles to escape. After so much time, they must have been getting thin.

"Nothing? No guesses? Insults? Threats? You're better than this, Mr. Wheeler."

"What d'ya want from me?"

"I want to talk. I want you to listen."

Joey snorted. "Y'want something more than that, fucktard."

Pegasus crossed a leg over the other and folded his hands on his knee.

"I'll tell you what, Mr. Wheeler. I'll make you the easiest deal of your life so long as you shut that hole on your face and listen for ten seconds." Pegasus waited for the shouting, and delightfully, none came. "Excellent. Here is the deal I made our Kaiba-boy. If you watch your language, I'll bring down a music player to run continually."

"What, you're saying Kaib' agreed to that?"

"That's precisely what I'm saying. Although his room is a bit quieter than this musty old place. I'm not even sure if he can hear his heater turn on."

That certainly grabbed Joey's attention. "So he gets heat?"

"Well of course. I'll admit that he didn't at first, but dear Seto has been making strides toward working with me. Whether or not you claim it is simply to see Little Mokuba, the point still stands. Even  _Seto Kaiba_  is working with me to earn lighting, heat, music, books, extra clothing, really whatever he asks for. And yet there you sit, too engrossed in this concept that fighting me is your only option."

Pegasus leaned forward, elbows to knees and hands together. "Here's a secret for you. I don't want you in there."

Joey considered for several moments, enough that Pegasus felt his heart pick up. He was giving in. After all thing time, the last of them would surrender, at least enough that the dungeon visits would be unnecessary. Pegasus took deep breaths through his nose, not wanting Joey to be able to see the anticipation. He could make concessions for them, for the worst of them, if it meant getting the present he really wanted.

"Fuck off."

Pegasus sat up straight. "As you wish, Mr. Wheeler. I'll be back tomorrow."

Standing, Pegasus carried his chair back away from the iron bars and against the cell across from Joey. If only there was a button similar to Kaiba's to show a definite end to the conversation. Maybe he would need to be moved into the fishbowl once Kaiba clawed his way out.

As Pegasus clacked back down the hall, he realized that Kaiba might not be as close as he thought. If he couldn't put in effort for Pegasus's birthday, why should Pegasus do the same in return? Aside from Kaiba and Joey, they all had celebrated perfectly nice birthdays together, and now that Pegasus's turn had come around, none of them could even fake it.

He took the stairs again. It had been half a year. They should be showing signs of coming around by now, not regressing back to their initial weeks. This was supposed to be working.

Why wasn't this working?

Kaiba hadn't really calmed down until he found out, but that was after weeks of constant questioning and rationalizations that Pegasus didn't have the heart to deal with from everyone else, particularly not all at once. And Kaiba only obeyed when he felt it benefited him getting back to Mokuba.

None of them were actually trying.

Pegasus grabbed the final plate off the cart and punched the code into Duke's door. Seeing their anniversary put a frown on Pegasus's face for the first time he could remember. They were ruining everything, even her memory.

Mercy was meant to bring them around. It was what she would have wanted in place of revenge. But they took his mercy and threw it back in his face.

Duke sat in one corner, legs bent and propped up on a chair in front of him. The room was covered in paper airplanes made from the pages of a book Pegasus had brought up the day before, and the window, while protected with security glass, had new scratches on it.

"I see you've found some form of entertaining yourself."

"And you haven't given up this absurdity yet."

Was he being absurd? Did he really think that keeping them isolated and locked away would draw them closer to him? Even Ryou, who had been so dependent on him and needy for months latched onto the first other person he came into contact with—Seto  _nobody-wants-me_  Kaiba.

"Do you ever sit on a chair like a civilized person? Or does this rebellious moping make you feel like a fighter?"

"Does insulting people give you some power rush?"

This wasn't about power. This whole thing, the entirety of it was about getting justice. They deserved to die and he showed them mercy. Why couldn't just see that? Of course Duke didn't fit into the same category as the others. It wasn't even supposed to be him. Pegasus shouldn't have been carrying on this insipid conversation.

"Sit at the table for your dinner or I'm taking it with me."

"You've got to get tired of threatening me eventually. How much longer's that going to take?"

How much longer would it take? They were going on a year now without much change. Even Kaiba, who knew, didn't care about his guilt, only about getting to his brother.

What was he supposed to do with that sort of attitude?

"I'm feeling quite magnanimous today. I'll offer you once again."

Duke's feet fell to the floor, but he didn't stand. It was a movement in the right direction and that was the only thing keeping Pegasus from storming out.

"What're you going to do? Let me starve?"

 _I should_.

"If that's what it takes to get you sitting at the table, Mr. Devlin."

If threats were all he had left to lean on, what was the point in carrying this on? Did he really want to spend the rest of his life threatening these children into submission? This was supposed to be justice for her, not a punishment for him.

How could he have miscalculated so much?

They had nothing.

He had everything.

He had them.

So how were they still fighting, even after all this time? There was nothing left to fight for, no chance of home, no chance to leave, no chance for a life off of the island. This was it for all of them. How many times did they have to hear that before they would believe it?

"I'm fine starving. Hightail it out of here."

Pegasus took the plate and did.

If they wouldn't try, he shouldn't try. He wouldn't try. He had nothing left to give to them, not without receiving anything in return, and all hope of that trickled away to nothing.

Duke's door locked automatically behind him and Pegasus dropped the plate onto the cart where it clattered against the others. He thought that something broke, but he didn't stop to check. Mokuba's stop was next and spending an hour and a half with him whining after his brother might make Pegasus grab a gun off the nearest guard and finish them all.

He eyed one of the guards and his gun and debated it anyway. But he supposed that Mokuba deserved the same chance at a goodbye all the others had gotten. He had put in more effort than most of the rest.

His death could be quick.

The guard in the hallway outside what was meant to be the Kaiba wing handed over his weapon. Pegasus tucked it in his waistband behind his back and hid it with the hem of his blazer. Mokuba deserved to die unafraid.

The others could rot in their rooms.

Pegasus didn't knock as he entered, closing the door quietly behind him and walking down the short hallway to the living area. Mokuba's back was to him in the kitchenette, peering into the oven with his hair tied in a messy knot. Pegasus cleared his throat and Mokuba jumped, slamming the door closed and spinning around.

"You're early," he said, then tumbled over, "I mean happy birthday."

"Are you baking your dinner?" Pegasus asked. At least that birthday wish hadn't been forced.

"I'm-" Mokuba rolled his eyes. "I'm making muffins."

"Muffins? An odd choice for supper."

Mokuba shook his head, arms behind him on the handle of the oven door. "They're for you."

The sentence slipped over Pegasus's thoughts and made the gun seem all the heavier. He repeated the words back more slowly, trying to understand them. They were for him? The only times Mokuba had ever made him food had been at Pegasus's request.

He hadn't requested.

"Well," Mokuba said. "I didn't have cake mix and this was the closest thing I had. But I added sugar? So they might turn out weird, but maybe they'll taste more like cupcakes that way."

Pegasus's head tilted to the side while he stared at this child across from him. The smile came up unbeckoned and there was nothing to say but to ask, "You're making me a cake?"

"It's your birthday," Mokuba said, like it was the most obvious thing. "Everyone deserves a cake on their birthday."

Pegasus stumbled the rest of the distance between them and fell on his knees, hands moving to either side of Mokuba's face. The little boy—and he was just a child—widened his eyes and didn't pull away. They stayed like that while Pegasus processed the unprompted considerate gesture. Mokuba's face was warm from the oven and his gaze held Pegasus's.

He was coming around.

They would all come around, starting with the youngest.

"Bless you, child."

This would work.

He could do this.


	34. Chapter 34

"Hello, Kaiba-boy."

"Pegasus."

After switching out Seto's plates and giving Seto a pointed look as he shoved the coffee through, Pegasus sat on the floor with his back to the glass. It was a first, but with only the camera watching, Seto took a moment to think on it before joining him. He sat to the side of Pegasus, back to the wall, so he could glance to his left and see the side of Pegasus's head.

"You seem upset," Seto said. He took a sip of the coffee before setting the mug beside him.

"Pensive. Maybe a little broody."

"Mokuba's fine, I assume."

"Your brother is dandy. I think I would be more inclined toward melancholy should anything happen with Mokuba. He's a delight."

It would have been easy to comment about how Pegasus didn't need to tell him how delightful Mokuba was, but it would prove counterproductive. Whatever caused Pegasus to be so pensive must have been something the discussion would come around to, because otherwise, he wouldn't have let on.

"You know they would cooperate more if you told them the truth," Seto said, taking a guess at the cause of Pegasus's problem. It was a vague enough guess, so whatever the issue must have fit in there somewhere.

"Then I would be justifying myself seven times each morning and night. They will come around, or rather, I'm telling myself that."

Seto leaned his head against the glass and saw that Pegasus had done the same. Seto brought up a knee to have something to drape his arms over, picking at a thumbnail that had torn at some point the day before.

"You must have expected to justify this to us at some point. You practically dragged me to it."

"But I wanted you to know, Kaiba-boy. You have to be a better confidant than any of the others."

"I don't have to be."

"You know what I mean. Don't just twist my words simply because you are capable of doing so. You  _have_  to be better than the others because I believe you have the capability of being better. There. Was that clear enough for you?"

"Just because you believe me better doesn't mean I am."

Seto caught the movement in the corner of his vision as Pegasus shook his head. "Fine. Be difficult if you must during this trying time." After a moment's pause, Pegasus added, "What would you do if I stopped coming down here?"

Seto turned to look at him, but saw a waving hand. "I'm posing a hypothetical. Don't worry. Just imagine that I stopped visiting you and sent my guards to bring you meals and laundry. They never spoke to you or stayed longer than was required, and you were left completely on your own, knowing that the person you love is out of reach."

"What's the purpose of this hypothetical?" It was heading in a dangerous direction, one that sounded like Pegasus might follow through if Seto answered incorrectly. If there was a path to veer the subject down rather than actually answer, Seto needed to find it.

"I want to know how you would react."

"Not well. Why?"

"Because that's my life. I'm isolated on an island with just guards for company, guards who don't enjoy my presence but are paid to be in it. And my Cecelia is out of reach."

"It's not exactly the same."

"No?"

Seto popped his shoulders. "No one made you live like a recluse. If you wanted to move back to the mainland or anywhere else, you could. You have money, so it isn't like people would ignore you. You're here of your own free will."

"I'm an eccentric millionaire. A passing novelty."

"Surely you're a billionaire by now, what with KaibaCorp and your company."

"Not at all. I haven't been giving myself a paycheck from your little KC, and the stocks I own from it have only now started doing well since your disappearance. It's coming around, just slowly."

"Whatever. Just don't pretend like we're in the same boat."

"I didn't ask for her to die."

"I never said you did."

"Well," Pegasus said. "She left me isolated. Wasn't my choice."

Seto nearly asked for Pegasus to open the door. Instead, he took a sip of the lukewarm coffee and kept himself from saying something he would regret. He understood the terms to get out of the room. Pegasus wouldn't change his mind because he was feeling a bit down, and there was nothing Seto could offer him on the other side of the glass that he couldn't from inside.

But, if he wanted companionship, then certainly an alliance fit into that category.

"It's Friday, right?" Seto asked.

"It is."

"Who is causing you the most trouble now?"

"Hm, well, today I'd say Mr. Wheeler. He makes his own situation more troublesome. Seven months and he still won't even let me talk. He's just got to be withering away."

"I could talk to him for you," Seto offered.

"With the way you two interact, that might be counteractive to my goal."

But that wasn't a no.

"He might not like me, but he will listen to me. Maybe I can talk him down enough for you to get through to him."

Pegasus shifted so that he was facing Seto a bit more head on, and to help his case, Seto did the same. He tried to mask his actions with another sip of the cooling coffee. His offer wouldn't be accepted, but maybe the fact that he offered at all would be enough to earn himself credit toward trust.

"You just want me to let you out," Pegasus said.

"I'm offering a favor. You don't have to take me up on it, but I could make Wheeler listen to you."

"All right then," Pegasus said. "I'll play along with this as a hypothetical. What would you benefit from it? Even if I did let you talk with him for a bit, you would go right back in here."

"I wouldn't mind the exercise."

Pegasus laughed and turned back around so he faced the chair. "I still don't believe I could get you back in here."

"Then I'll trade," Seto said. "I'll let you lock me away again so long as you switch out my glasses."

Because putting faith in a trade like that meant trusting in Pegasus's guarantee. Seto hoped he phrased it subtly enough that it would pass as an oversight on his part. And then, just to help his case, he added, "And I don't mean for the pink pair or another ridiculous set. I want the black ones back, like before."

"But you don't want to help me," Pegasus said.

"I want the exercise."

And the trust gained by such an exercise. If he could pull this off, then he might have a starting point to get out of the room. He didn't know why he was banking his entire plan on Wheeler, but the mutt had to be reasonable enough to listen to Seto for at least a minute, for long enough for Seto to tell him to cool down. It would be better to talk without Pegasus standing nearby, that way he could also let Wheeler know that the plan was still to escape.

They just had to play smarter.

"I don't get how you plan to help."

"He sees you as a villain. He doesn't like me, but at least I have typically fought on Yugi's side."

"Do you see me as a villain?"

With a chuckle, Seto lowered his legs so they both stretched out in front of him. He gave the question the pause it deserved before answering, "I see everyone as a villain."

"I'm sure that's not true."

"You know my exception."

"What a sad way to live."

"I make do. Do you want my help or not?"

Pegasus tapped his fingers on a knee and tilted his head back so he stared at the ceiling. "I'll take the night to consider. It is a tempting offer, although I'm sure you knew that."

Seto shrugged even though Pegasus wasn't facing his way to see it. "You'll probably give me new glasses eventually."

The smile was imagined, but certainly there. It was twice in one conversation that Seto hinted at trust in one conversation. It was more than he wanted to, but the length of time it took Pegasus to respond was promising.

"That may be the case. It's hardly amusing without a witness."

Of course Pegasus was willing to admit that had been the reason for them all the time. It wasn't for the lesson he had insisted, but to prove a point to Ryou and Seto. At least he wasn't lying about it anymore. That had to be a step in the right direction.

"It wasn't amusing with a witness."

"Buzzkill. You should let Mokuba be the judge of that. I'm sure he would find them entirely charming."

"You won't win this argument."

Pegasus's gasp was too loud to have been genuine. "There's something you wouldn't do for Little Mokuba? Oh horror of horrors!"

"He wouldn't expect it."

"Hm. That's an interesting conversation starter, Kaiba-boy. Would you indulge me?"

"It's that or shower."

Pegasus turned again, this time leaning a shoulder against the glass. Seto was comfortable where he was, and just inclined his head in Pegasus's direction.

"So for someone to be close to you, they need to understand the things you want and the things you hate. That way, they don't step on your toes while dancing around you."

"I wouldn't say that."

"How would you put it then?"

"I let people get close to me if they respect me.'"

"I respect you."

"If you did, you wouldn't be trying to convince me that you know what is best for me. You might respect my accomplishments or how well Mokuba has turned out, but not me personally."

"And how does one go about earning your respect?" Pegasus asked. He scooted forward a few inches, getting his face closer to Seto's. Seto nearly reached up to smudge the glass in between them, but kept his hands down.

"Be respectable. I don't like Muto, but I respect him as a duelist. I didn't like Gozaburo, but I respected him as an authority. But on a personal level?" Seto said, knowing it would be the follow-up question. "That's probably a question for Mokuba."

"Oh, I'm sure you can think up an answer on your own."

"I've never had to earn my own respect. Mokuba would be the person to ask, although I'd rather you didn't. Maybe Roland."

Seto found a white thread on his pants that had to have come from the bed sheets. He picked it off and let it float to the floor. It disappeared against the painted concrete and Seto trailed his fingers along looking for it. He found it and lost it again, over and over to distract himself from Pegasus's close observation.

"So if I let you talk to Mr. Wheeler, what sort of arguments might you pose in my favor?"

Pegasus was actually considering it.

"Off the top of my head? 'You're being an idiot.'"

Pegasus chuckled. "You'd call him an idiot for continuing to fight me? You fought me for some time."

"In the beginning. You've proven time and again that we're not leaving. Might as well make the best of it."

"You know that's not what I want."

"But it's what he will need to hear. He won't come around to your way of thinking until you tell him the truth."

"Are you saying you've come around?"

Seto dropped his head back against the glass. He was too tired to think about how Pegasus might interpret his every action, every word. Lying took energy Seto couldn't muster and the truth hardly mattered this late in the game.

"No. I'm never going to agree with something that puts Mokuba at risk."

"Of all of you," Pegasus said, turning back around so his hair was all Seto could see of him. It was hardly fair that Pegasus could go back to review the tapes to see Seto's reaction, but Seto had to stare at a veil of hair. "I'd say Little Mokuba is the least at risk. He seems to be coming around."

"Least at risk is still at risk."

"It sounds as if you're saying we've met an impasse."

"Seems that way."


	35. Chapter 35

Pegasus came down the next morning with a glasses case. Seto raised his eyebrows and leaned forward a little, silent because he wasn't going to let Pegasus trick him.

"I accept your terms. Although, you'll have to change back should Mr. Wheeler not heed your advice."

"Fair trade," Seto said. He moved forward to meet Pegasus at the hatch.

"I figure you can eat with Mr. Wheeler," Pegasus said, and for some reason that made him smile, not a comforting smile, but like Seto wasn't part of some joke.

"How long will I have?"

Seto switched out the glasses and didn't let himself break the green pair. He felt like he could breathe again with the black frames and it took a lot of effort not to run to the mirror to erase the past weeks of green staring back. But the guards bringing in a ladder distracted him from it.

"I'll give you until his time slot. An hour or so."

Like all the times before, the guards didn't glance his way, but Seto found that he didn't mind. The glass was coming up. Seto was getting out, even if just for a few minutes, but it would be longer than the time it took him to walk the hallway. Seto didn't care what the reason for the outing was. He was getting out for a while, and that had to be his biggest accomplishment since waking up behind the glass.

He'd convinced Pegasus to let him out.

_And the glass came up._

Pegasus reached into a pocket and brought out a set of handcuffs, dangling them from one of his fingers. "You'll put these on," he said, voice flat.

It was another thing Seto didn't care about. He took the cuffs and clicked them on one wrist at a time, then gave them a tug to prove they had latched.

"You'll get these back-" Pegasus said, plucking away Seto's glasses. "-once we're there."

Seto didn't argue it, just requested that he be careful of fingerprints on the lenses. He expected a tease, something like,  _oh yes, now you're careful of them_ , but got nothing from Pegasus. Too anxious about letting Seto out, he supposed. The firm grip on his arm confirmed the theory.

Avoiding the guards, walls, and doorways was easy enough with the light fixtures mounted along the walls. But after they went down the stairs, Seto's vision turned into shadows with the occasional speck of light out ahead. Pegasus must have been able to follow from memory.

The stench hit him after a turn. Pegasus didn't comment, but his grip tightened the stronger the smell became. Seto couldn't turn from it or cover his face, although if Pegasus wasn't reacting to it, Seto certainly wouldn't.

"Thought I had longer without you?"

Wheeler's voice was low and rough, his accent just as strong as ever, but with far less energy. Pegasus dragged Seto a few steps forward and they were met with an additional, "Kaiba?"

"Wheeler."

"Well you're off to a smashing start," Pegasus said. He slid the glasses back over Seto's eyes.

"Nice glasses, nerd."

"Nice kennel, mutt."

Pegasus changed his grip to the chain between Seto's wrists. "Honestly, Kaiba, this is not what you promised me."

"Aren't you supposed to trust me?"

Only Seto's left hand came out of the cuff. Pegasus took the free end and snapped it to the cell bars before stepping away.

"You're fuc-"

"Rules still apply out here, Seto."

"You're kidding."

Pegasus shook his head. "Not at all. I've got to go grab breakfast and you need to talk to our Mr. Wheeler. Would you rather I left you inside with him?"

Inside was a cesspool in every definition Seto could think of. It was the stench and probably the cause of the dark corner. Pegasus had mentioned Wheeler being downgraded early on, and that was seven months now.

And Bakura had it worse than this.

"I'd rather stay out here."

"I thought as much," Pegasus said, tapping his palm to Seto's cheek. Seto leaned out of it and glared. He didn't know what it was about the wall being up and Pegasus touching him. Probably just to prove that he could, that Seto couldn't stop him from it.

Pegasus left with the promise to return quick as a whip. Seto gave him a few seconds before saying, "You fucking reek, Wheeler."

A sad laugh came from the dungeon. "You seem t'be doing real well. Some fancy bling you got on that wrist."

"You have to give up this pointless struggle."

"Yeah? Clue me in, moneybags. Why should this creep win?"

"Is that what I said?"

Seto adjusted his glasses and realized that with the position of the handcuff, he would have to either remain standing or sit with an arm raised. The bars had a horizontal iron railing across the middle and Seto was cuffed above it.

"Figured you'd at least be too stubborn t'give in. He told me ya'd surrendered, but I thought for sure he was fulla shit."

Listening for the returning footsteps, Seto dropped his voice, just in case. He checked the ceilings for a camera and found one almost directly behind him. No way to tell if it had sound.

"Mokuba's been moved to a nicer room. I've been given a video tour of it."

Pegasus clacked into sight with a plate in one hand and a bag in the other. He set the plate by Seto's feet and rifled through the bag for two water bottles, both tossed through the bars, followed by an apple, two protein bars, and a bag of baby carrots. He took out a final water bottle and handed it to Seto.

"I'm visiting Yugi-boy and then darling Tea. I'll be back in under an hour."

"Sure."

There was a long moment of hesitation and scrutiny before Pegasus went back down the hall. Seto listened as they footsteps faded, expecting Pegasus to hang back. But instead, two guards came down the hall and stationed themselves about twenty feet away.

"So Mokuba's gotta nicer room and that means I should clam up?"

"No," Seto said, checking on the guards and not looking at the camera. He waited to sit in favor of stretching out and scanning either direction for any sign that it was unsafe to talk.

"You should shut the fuck up because this-" Seto paused to gesture to the chains and the cell. "-is not going to get you out. He's going to kill you or let you die."

"So what? You're his rep now? Gonna preach me t'gospel of Pegasus?"

"No, you insufferable moron. I'm here to tell you that he does not plan to ever let us leave. This isn't Duelist Kingdom. It isn't a matter of beating him and going home. His guards are under orders to kill us if we try anything." Seto paused to read Wheeler's expression through the darkness and found it irritatingly blank. "You think we can kill him and go home? They will kill us. Convince him to let us go? Won't happen. He's not going to prison for this. Are you getting my point?"

Wheeler scoffed and cracked open a water bottle. "You're chugging that kool-aid, aren't you, Kaiba-boy?"

"Can you get out of this room?"

"Course not."

"Did you know that Bakura managed to get out of his in under a day?"

"No."

"That Mokuba is in a bigger room, with more items and more possibilities?"

"I mean, you just said-"

"That your friends are up there, all alone, and you have the chance to do something about it?"

"I know they're here."

Seto tilted his head and wished he could cross his arms. Half a year had dampened his memories of Wheeler's idiocy. The simple facts of their imprisonment weren't so complicated. It came down to one simple concept—play the game. Wheeler's inability to do even that much hindered Seto's efforts. Pegasus wouldn't get off edge until he trusted them all.

"I understand that I'm one of the last people you want to hear this from," Seto said. "But you're screwing this up for everyone. Do you want to see your sister again?"

Wheeler nodded.

"Then get out of this dungeon. Get somewhere useful. Look at yourself. You're sitting in your own shit."

"I'm not letting him beat me."

"No one is saying that. I'm telling you to stop being an idiot. Right now, what can you do to better your situation? Is it fighting to no end? Is it rotting down here? Or is it playing this game to the conclusion?"

The chains rattled and Wheeler got to his feet. He walked to the end of his slack, putting him around an arm's reach from Seto and the bars.

"I want t'hear your master plan."

Seto chuckled. "It's no wonder you dueled based on luck. Master plans take strategy, mutt. And strategy requires time and playing with what you have." He paused to gesture to the cell. "You want to be involved in the master plan? Make yourself useful. You sure as hell aren't here."

"So you got nothing."

"Pegasus has been planning this. He has resources. He already has us. We're down in the odds. I don't have much, but I will be getting Mokuba and getting out of here. I will not be coming back to open this door for you."

Wheeler dropped back to the dirty floor and the movement sent another gust of the stench up to Seto, who for the sake of argument, didn't comment. He gave Wheeler the time he needed to process the idea of getting along with Pegasus being in his own interest. It took longer than Seto expected for the point to sink in, so he sat down to pick at his breakfast.

"You're spoutin' teamwork," Wheeler said. "Using a lot o'words to say it, but you're saying we're gonna have t'work together. Seto Kaiba's preaching teamwork."

Scoffing, Seto distracted himself with a sip from his water bottle. Eating wouldn't be possible with each bite tasting like the air, and he held his breath for seconds before the sip and after it went down.

"I'm telling you that you won't get out if you stay in there."

The smile was clear even though the darkness. "You're asking for teamwork, moneybags. Never thought I'd see the day."

"You won't see many more days if you don't stop whatever feeble protest you're marching in."

"Maybe," Wheeler said, and Seto saw that as progress.

He adjusted his glasses and hoped Pegasus saw it that way.

"So, you know what's going on?"

"Generally. He wants you to figure it out on your own."

Wheeler snorted. "And you care what he wants?"

"Playing the game. I'm supposed to be seeing Mokuba in a week or so." And Seto wouldn't screw that up over Joey Wheeler.

"How's he doing?"

"A fourteen-year-old alone with the man who has kidnapped him twice now? As well as you might expect."

Seto held his breath for another sip of water. Mokuba would be okay. He was resilient and had already come through so much—he shouldn't have to go through more—that Seto was sure he would make it through this one. Maybe Seto would find someone for him to talk to. Mokuba might do well in therapy, so long as he didn't have to discuss any of the magical components of the time spent on the island.

"Wonder what Ren's up to."

"Knowing Pegasus, he'll tell you if he sees you're cooperating."

"You think?"

Seto nodded. "He gives me pictures or videos of Mokuba once a week, updates on KaibaCorp sporadically. He doesn't care if you know what's going on outside of this madhouse."

Wheeler grabbed a protein bar and tore off the wrapper, squeezing it into a ball with his fist and tossing it out in the hallway beside Seto. "Gives him more to clean," he said before taking a bite.

"You're an idiot."

"And you're getting repetitive."

"Are you going to at least play along with him?"

The shrug annoyed Seto more than it probably should have. He couldn't tell Wheeler that he would have to switch glasses back because that would be admitting to the other pair's existence, and if there was one person who didn't need to know about them, it was Wheeler.

"It feels like giving up," Wheeler said.

"That's the point. You want him to think you are."

"But like, wouldn't it be better t'prove that we're not gonna bend to his plans? That he can't force us into stuff?"

"Wheeler. He can force us. Be realistic. You fight much harder and he'll stop coming back."

It might have been a lie since Seto remembered Pegasus saying that he would continue to drop by until one of them died, but Seto's point needed more of an impact than that. The idea was still there. If Pegasus wanted to kill them, he would. There wouldn't even be a trigger to pull. He could just walk away.

"Never thought I'd see the day that you gave up."

Seto rubbed his fingers over the bridge of his nose and wondered how Wheeler had made it so far through life. "No one is giving up. You have to play the game until you find a piece you can work with. I can't do anything where I am. So I play until I'm somewhere better. The more moving pieces, the better."

"That sounds like giving up."

"At least I'm not living in my own shit."

"You might have me there."

Another victory.

Seto shook the handcuff and gave it a tug, although he didn't expect it to come off. If he had anything to pick it with, Seto would have, even if only to prove that it was unnecessary. He might have been able to fight the guards at the beginning of the year, but not after so long imprisoned. The guards were also likely under orders to use the tasers before he got close enough to do any damage.

"All you have to do is answer questions, maybe ask a few," Seto said. "In case you haven't noticed, he rambles."

"He never shuts up."

"Then you should have no problem carrying on a conversation."

Wheeler finished off the protein bars and sucked on the tips of his fingers. Seto turned away so he didn't have to watch. Those hands couldn't have been washed in at least a few weeks, and the cell was covered in filth. He must have gotten sick at least twice a month.

"You seen anyone else?"

"Mokuba twice now. Bakura stayed with me for a week last month."

"He put you two together?"

"The less charming half of Bakura's personality kept escaping. My cell is escape-proof."

"Where's he got you?"

"Couple halls down, one floor up. Concrete room, glass wall that can only be opened from the outside."

Wheeler's laugh turned into a cough. "He's got you in a zoo cage?"

"I usually go with display case."

"The plan is to let Pegasus win then."

Seto shook his head. Trying was going to end up pointless since Wheeler would end up forgetting anything he said within minutes of Seto leaving. It really wasn't so complicated.

"You need resources. Get yourself to resources."

That was about as simple as Seto could explain it. If he had to explain any more, he might raise his voice to a volume that the guards could overhear. They didn't seem to be paying much attention, chatting under their breaths with the occasional glance over.

"That mean you're going t'be one of my resources?"

Seto practically heard the upcoming teamwork jokes and veered away from them. Wheeler's only service to him would be getting the glasses switched out. He wouldn't be much use anywhere else. At one point, Seto might have wanted him around for his fighting abilities, but from the looks of him, Wheeler wouldn't be any good.

"It means get your ass upstairs. He's a nuisance, but no more than you are."

Wheeler flipped Seto off. "You may be out there, but you still ain't the boss of me."

"I don't have the energy to supervise you, mutt. Just do something intelligent for once."

"I'll think about it."


	36. Chapter 36

Seto stared back at himself and nodded a few times. This morning was just about laying groundwork for later on. He could do this. Pegasus would believe this.

After washing his face once more, frowning at the stubble he hadn't bothered shaving, Seto headed for the bedroom. He allowed the full emptiness of the space to settle in as a reminder of what was at stake. It was time to cash in, to collect, to prove to Pegasus that this game for trust was over.

He sat on the floor rather than the bed since the discomfort would play to his advantage. And he went with the notebook instead of the French textbooks because after almost eight months, Seto probably could have spoken the language better than the author. Looking over them again might oversell the effort.

Seto sketched the other side of the room, guessing at the dimensions of the glass and the frame around Mokuba's painting. He jotted them in the margins and used the constant glances to watch for Pegasus, even though by this point, he could have drawn his room from memory.

"Good morning, Kaiba-boy."

"Pegasus."

"Are you drawing a picture? If it's good, I'll hang it on my refrigerator."

Seto ran his fingers back through his hair using the hand with the pencil and went back to his sketch. For a moment, he considered adding Pegasus in the chair, but waved off the notion. It was too much of a risk. Pegasus might end up finding it.

"What's got you so glum? Your visit with Little Mokuba's in just a few days. Buck up, soldier."

Seto dipped his head. "A soldier with no battles to fight."

"It's an expression, Seto."

Breakfast came through and although it involved a coffee, Seto ignored it. His head ached and leaving it there bothered him, but it was one day, one day for a greater cause than alleviating a withdrawal headache.

"Are you feeling all right?"

"You take interest in the feelings of a goldfish?"

Pegasus smirked. "Are we still on that? It's been months."

"Exactly. It has been months."

"I warned you from the beginning that this would take time. Have some patience."

"What have I done to give you a reason not to trust me?"

Seto set the pencil across the page. He kept his hand on it like he might abandon the subject at any moment and return to his drawing. An easy dismissal would break the illusion Seto was creating, but the idea that it was possible would work in his favor.

"Look me in the eye and tell me you want to stay," Pegasus said.

"I can't do that."

"Which means you are going to start looking for escape the moment I let you out."

"You let me out once already."

"And you convinced Joey to play along by putting escape fantasies in his head."

"Which I told you about. I may not want to stay, but I do want to stay with Mokuba. I'm not going to risk that."

"And I'm not going to risk you unraveling all this. Mokuba is behaving, but that's fairly new. I'd rather you didn't influence him like you did Ryou."

"You make it sound like that was purposeful. You can't blame me for following through with your request."

Pegasus crossed his arms and bounced a foot against the floor. "I happen to enjoy your brother the way he is. It's bad enough you'll have an entire day to ruin our progress."

"Should I sing your praises? Actually sing? What more could you possibly need me to prove?"

"I don't trust you yet. When I do, you'll get out."

Seto went back to his sketch, darkening the area around the chair. He had said enough to embed his points in Pegasus's head for the day. Balancing them would be a challenge, because if Seto threw out too many concessions too soon, it would read false.

"Don't be like this. You're doing well enough."

"You wanted me to understand your side, assumed I would because I have Mokuba. You know what? I've seen Mokuba twice in almost eight months. Not even an hour in total. You were willing to do anything to see her again. Kidnap Mokuba. Try to kill me. Steal souls. Pit fights. Why don't you get that I'm willing to do the same?"

"Mokuba is alive. Cecelia is not."

He caught himself before saying, " _That's not my fault._ "

"You're not drinking your coffee," Pegasus said.

Seto rubbed the back of his neck, pressing his hand to the side of it and closing his eyes. He couldn't reason with delusion. That was okay. Seto didn't need reason for this day to go according to plan, but it would have been convenient to have the option.

"It's time I worked off it."

"You're giving up coffee?"

Seto shrugged and returned to his sketch. "It's been long enough."

"You should at least wean off it. Think of the headaches."

Seto met Pegasus's gaze. "I'm fairly used to headaches in here."

And that was his time for the morning visit. Pegasus bid him adieu and bowed for some reason, sweeping away with Seto's dinner plate and the speaker. Seto didn't bother moving, even though the smell of the coffee drifting toward him almost had him reconsidering the withdrawal he would face. But he kept sketching and avoiding the camera by keeping his head down. He hadn't gotten Pegasus to the mentality he hoped for.

His act that night would have to be better.

* * *

Seto stared once again at his reflection. He wouldn't fail this time. The speaker turned on and Seto lingered for a moment longer behind the wall.

Fifteen minutes.

He messed with his hair before leaving the bathroom and rubbed at his stubble to draw attention to it without having to comment himself. He ran a finger under his glasses and against the corner of an eye before sitting on the edge of his bed.

"Good afternoon, Kaiba-boy."

"Is it? Are you having a good afternoon?"

"Still grouchy, I see."

"I can't do this anymore."

Pegasus smiled politely and sat in the chair, leaning down to set Seto's stacked breakfast plate and mug on the floor beside him. He had changed out of his suit from the morning and into a pajama set—the purple one from the night of the green glasses.

"You're a strong boy, Seto. Hold out a while longer."

"I can't. Damn it Pegasus, look at where you've put me. Forget the fact that I can't see Mokuba or that I'm trapped in a display case. Everything is white. It's quiet. It's cold. It's  _static_. I am losing my mind and I can't do this anymore."

"Where's the determination?" Pegasus asked as he turned off the music. "The strength? The abounding Kaiba resolve?"

"You've broken it. You win. I don't want to fight you anymore."

Pegasus pressed his lips together for a moment as he held Seto's gaze. Seto didn't waver, didn't look away, didn't blink. Too intense though, and Pegasus wouldn't buy it, so Seto ran his fingers through his hair again.

"I admit what I did. And while I didn't know about your wife—Cecelia—I did play a part in stopping you. I won't deny you your justice by fighting."

"It's a nice speech," Pegasus said. "But you're always full of pretty words."

"I'm not lying to you," Seto lied.

"Then you can continue to prove yourself. I can't let you out yet."

Seto stood and started to pace. The argument was tired and frustrating, but Seto could use that to his advantage, embody the emotions to better sell his ruse.

"Don't be like this, Seto. Your birthday is in just a few days. You can hold out until then to get your boost of Little Mokuba."

"And then what? Another four months of waiting for a few hours with him? I'm not asking you to let me go. I'm asking for you not to make me miss any more of his life."

Pegasus stood and walked up to the glass, so Seto mimicked the action.

"You will try to escape the moment you're freed."

"I'm telling you I won't."

"You tell me a lot of things."

"So chain me up," Seto said, "Switch out the door with glass in whatever room is up there. Just put me near Mokuba."

"I can't do that."

"You  _won't_  do that. I'm doing everything you've asked. I haven't fought you. I'm not attacking anyone when the glass is raised. I just want to stay with my only living family."

"And you will, eventually."

Seto slammed his hand against the glass and then stared at the hazy smudge it left. "That's not good enough. What else do I have to do to prove this to you? Even if you didn't have all the guards. An island. Security. Precautions. Even without that, I'm not going anywhere. At least here-" Seto paused for effect and to exhale. "-it's more time with Mokuba than if we were at home."

"I'm supposed to believe that?"

"What do you think the odds would be of me somehow managing to escape on the first try?"

Pegasus checked his watch. "Less than a percent?"

"I know that if I did try, only to fail, that I'd end up back here or in a dungeon. Longer, the next time. I won't chance a longer separation from Mokuba."

"But Kaiba, you're the sort of person I believe will find that marginal percentage and make it work."

"Keep an eye on me. Lock me up. This isn't about escaping. It's about Mokuba."

"We have holidays coming up," Pegasus said. "You'll be seeing him more then."

"Would that be enough for you? You can tell me that you'd be grateful for any chance given, but that's a lie. You would want the constant, to wake up knowing you could see her. To know that she was safe. We're supposed to understand each other. You're supposed to understand."

If Seto had been listening to Pegasus at all, that point should have stuck. It put them on the same team. It tied Seto's thoughts to Pegasus's. It conveyed the fact that Seto had been paying attention, trying.

"I do understand. I know exactly how hard this is for you. But you have to understand that I can't trust you yet."

"Let me prove it to you. What will it take? More than babysitting Bakura. More than convincing Wheeler to play along, which I know he is since you're calling him Joey now. I've been out of here and haven't tried anything. I've admitted that you're justified. Tell me what else I need to do and I'll do it."

"It's just time, Seto. You can't rush it."

No. He couldn't accept that.

"We were partners once. Let's go back to that. Take me out tomorrow. Show me what you've done with KaibaCorp. Put me back here at the end of the day."

Out of everything said, that got the most reaction from Pegasus. His head tilted to this other side and his fingers tapped on a crossed arm. "And why would I do that?"

"Proof. I won't ask to see Mokuba. We'll just work together."

"You said you wouldn't work for me."

"I said together."

Pegasus laughed and took a step back so they weren't in quite such close quarters. He checked his watch again before saying, "Your snark never fails to surprise me. It's good. Mokuba was worried you would lose it."

"So will you agree to that much? One day. Let me try to prove myself."

"One day won't prove anything."

Seto lifted a shoulder. "Couldn't hurt."

"I'm sure it could. You'll find a way, Kaiba-boy. Besides, tomorrow is the weekend. I'm not working."

"Monday then."

 _Take the weekend to think on it_ , Seto wanted to say.  _Decide in my favor. Give me some sign that you are actually going to let me out of here._

Seto couldn't actually say any of those things. Doubt was one emotion that he couldn't express, not if he wanted Pegasus to believe his surrender. Maybe he needed to try more desperation? But too much more and it wouldn't be believable. He still had to sound somewhat like himself.

"What's brought this on today of all days?" Pegasus asked. "You were your typical, severe self yesterday."

"I told you. I'm done."

"I want to believe you. Don't think that I'm just being stubborn. But even you must know how this looks from my end."

"I don't. I never thought I'd have to say any of this." He thought he would have gotten out by now.

"I can't do more than promise to think about it."

"Of course you can. You're in control of all of this. Just because I'd be out from behind this wall doesn't mean you lose your control."

"You're very pushy."

"Look at me," Seto said, and let his expression fall into the complete frustration that had been building. "All I want is to be there for Mokuba. You have everything. That is all I am asking for."

"That's a lot of ask of me."

"You can call me little prince again," Seto offered.

Pegasus laughed. "I do miss that one. But it's too soon. It's easy to make all these promises when you have nothing to lose."

"I'm losing his childhood. Don't you get that? I will have everything to lose once I'm up there. You'll have more control of me than this cage offers."

"See, I don't think that's true."

"One wrong word up there and you can throw me back down here. Don't you realize how careful I'm going to have to be? Mokuba wouldn't be able to handle me being sent back down." Seto closed his mouth before the rest of that sentiment spilled out. It wouldn't just be hard for Mokuba. Once Seto got out, he planned to keep it that way.

"Are you really so desperate that you would beg me, Kaiba?"

" _Yes._ " Seto put both hands on the glass and bounced them slightly, tensing his fingers against the cool wall. "You don't need this anymore."

"I'll consider it," Pegasus said. He checked his watch again. "And I'll be going up now. I'll be back in the morning. Chess?"

Seto dropped his gaze and nodded. He had hoped for a definite answer, but he would have to settle with consideration. Pegasus had the weekend to think it over. Maybe that would be enough.


	37. Chapter 37

Seto set down his book when Pegasus came into sight. He couldn't be sure without a clock, but it felt like Pegasus was late. And the lack of a breakfast plate caught Seto's interest, but quickly shifted back onto the men with the ladder.

The speaker came on and Seto stood.

"One day, Kaiba-boy. You will wear these," Pegasus said, holding up the handcuffs.

Not what Seto had in mind when he made the suggestion, but he nodded regardless. It had worked. He convinced Pegasus to give him a chance. He was getting out of the room for a day. Was this it? This was how he started to get out?

"I'm serious, Seto. If you try anything, there won't be a second chance, not for years to come."

"I understand."

Pegasus's gaze didn't leave Seto while the men worked on the vent, but Seto couldn't return the intensity of the stare. He had to watch the duct come down, the music player following, the ladder being propped against the wall. Pegasus could still change his mind at any moment.

The screeching of the glass coming up was better than the music. Unlike the times before, this wasn't for Seto to do Pegasus a favor or because of a medical emergency. This was all about trust. It was Pegasus's game and Seto finally advanced a space, even if that space involved handcuffs.

He had suggested Pegasus keep him chained. He couldn't fault Pegasus for taking him up on it.

Seto offered his wrists before asked. He didn't cross the line where the glass normally stopped him, but held up his wrists, hands forming light fists, and waited on Pegasus. There couldn't be a thought out of line today. This wasn't much of a chance, but it was the start Seto waited eight months for.

"You'll accompany me through my working hours, then back down here," Pegasus said as he snapped the cuffs on Seto's wrists, "I am armed. The guards are armed. Croquet is armed. I'm not joking when I say you'll spend the rest of-"

"I got it."

"No asking to see Mokuba or any of the others. This is purely a work outing. Is that much clear?"

Seto sighed. "Yes. Work only. Do you want my glasses while we walk up?"

After a moment of consideration, Pegasus said, "No. You can keep them."

Seto took a step out of the room. He did what he could to tone down the building excitement that his plan had worked, focusing on Pegasus's discomfort and how it would seem for Seto to be anything but neutral. This was a business transaction, a really fucking important one.

"Let's go." Pegasus extended a hand in the direction of the elevator and Seto took careful steps ahead. Pegasus fell in pace beside him, a few guards at their back, clomping loudly so Seto couldn't forget their presence. Their steps drowned out the tiny clatters as the chain between his wrists clinked against the cuffs. Seto tugged the ends of his sleeves down for protection against the metal.

"Anything interesting going on in the office?" Seto asked. Pegasus thumbed the elevator button and stepped forward when the doors opened.

"Standard day. If you would rather-"

"Standard is fine," Seto said, moving back to give the guards space to join them.

"Are you back to drinking coffee?"

Seto shook his head. He had been planning to, but thought that his refusal from the week before would sell better if he kept off it for a while.

"But you and coffee is the truest romance since Rose and Jack."

If Pegasus was still making jokes, then he couldn't have been too anxious about letting Seto out. Having the guards around likely helped, that and the weapons he claimed they all had. The maiming threat still sat on Seto's thoughts, so he checked to see what sort of arms the guards carried, guns or tasers.

Both.

"Should I comment on the wine addiction?"

Pegasus smirked. "You should give it a fair chance."

"I prefer scotch," Seto said, pausing as the doors opened and they filed out. "Vodka is fine too."

"Spoken like a true Kaiba. Get right to the heart of the alcohol as quickly as you can?"

"If I'm going to get drunk, I'm going to do so efficiently."

Pegasus gestured down a hallway before starting in the direction himself. Seto kept his gaze ahead, only watching where he was walking and Pegasus. He didn't allow himself to search for an escape route, to look for a room that might be Mokuba's, to do anything that would get him sent back down. Pegasus would be looking for any reason and Seto didn't plan to give him one.

"I'll keep that in mind. In here."

Pegasus's office was backed by a wall of windows, each panel reaching from floor to ceiling and reminding Seto too much of the glass wall from his prison. He walked toward them, looking out over the island and ocean. The rest of the office—the oversized desk, three computer monitors, bookshelves, easels, and various décor—didn't seem as important.

"Wouldn't mind the glass so much with this as my view."

"Mokuba's picture not enough anymore? And Croquet? Pull the chair around."

Seto hadn't noticed him appear. He was the only means of security in the office although the door was still open and Seto could see men in the hall. They weren't necessary, but the more Seto argued them, the more it would seem like he was planning to try something.

Croquet moved the chair as ordered, but Seto stayed by the window. He would have to sit eventually, but while he could enjoy the view, he planned on it.

"You'll take your breakfast in here," Pegasus said.

Seto nodded.

"I didn't peg you for a nature enthusiast." Pegasus walked up to stand beside Seto, following his gaze out across the craggy rocks where the ocean met the shore. He stood closer than Seto expected with how cautious he had acted before. But if he was using today as a test, then he would have to give Seto opportunities to slip up.

"It's much more enthralling than concrete walls."

"Well, it will be here all day. Let's get started."

The work Seto had offered to help with wasn't as interesting as the view, but Seto moved to the chair Croquet had brought around and sat, reaching up with both hands to angle the monitors in his direction. Seto didn't care to do the work, but if he had to, there wasn't a point in doing it halfway.

"Agenda?"

"Two conference calls. Reviewing contracts. Mundane paperwork."

Pegasus took the chair beside Seto and twisted the key in the lock to his file drawer. The door opened a moment later, a nameless guard bringing in Seto's breakfast and a coffee mug.

"For Industrial Illusions or KaibaCorp?"

"Both. Contracts for KC, the rest for I2."

Pegasus set the files on his desk and woke up the computer while Seto started picking at his breakfast. The coffee had to stay where it was since Seto had made a point to go through withdrawals, he couldn't drink any of it. If he had known Pegasus would cave with so little argument, he wouldn't have made that one.

"You have recent stock numbers?"

With a nod, Pegasus thumbed through a file until found the right one, handing it to Seto.

"Paper copies?" Seto asked.

"I knew you were coming."

He set down the fork to scan over the numbers, lower than he was used to, but steadily increasing like Pegasus had said. They dipped once a month before, so Seto asked, "What happened here?"

"Product release had to be delayed. Some nonsense about a glitch in the duel disk recognizing certain cards."

The methodical answers proved that he hadn't gotten comfortable with Seto, even restrained and not fighting back. If there was any other way to demonstrate how little Seto was interested in fighting back at this point, he would have done so. Mokuba was still locked away somewhere. Any attack on Pegasus now would end up getting Seto locked away for years or result in harm to Mokuba or himself. It was too early to fight. Not until Mokuba was safe.

"I assume you fixed it."

"Of course. The delay lasted three days."

Seto closed the folder. Even if he somehow managed to get Mokuba out and escape the island, going back to KaibaCorp wasn't an option. Pegasus would find them. He wasn't going to give up hunting them, so truly escaping would mean killing Pegasus, and Seto doubted Croquet would allow that to go unpunished. If he didn't kill them on the spot, he would let word out that Seto had killed someone, let Seto spend his days in prison.

"Are you really concerned I'll try something?"

By the door, Croquet adjusted his glasses, as if to draw attention to himself with the subtle motion. Seto didn't need a reminder that he was outnumbered and outweaponed. He sent a tired glare in Croquet's direction before taking another bite of the eggs.

"You do keep me on my toes."

"Calm down. I'm not risking another day more than necessary in the fishbowl."

"You are going back down there tonight."

Seto crossed a leg over the other and set down his fork. He would have to get a water at some point rather than the coffee, but that could wait until Pegasus tamed his nerves. His foot bounced against the leg of Seto's chair while he attended to the numbers on the screens. Seto leaned over to check on them.

Pegasus flinched.

"I'm fine standing by the window if you don't want me this close to you."

"We will have to adjust to each other, Seto."

"I'd rather you didn't call me that."

"I'll call you what I like."

Seto's breath came heavy and he had to let it go. If he pushed it too hard, Pegasus might revert back to the little prince jabs. Since Seto offered them back so recently, it would be fresh in Pegasus's thoughts. Although, he might have preferred little prince to Seto.

The first of the two conference calls took two hours. Pegasus kept his end on mute, but the phone was within Seto's reach. If he had been inclined, he could have reached forward to unmute, to let someone know where he was, to end Pegasus's ability to hide them. But not with Mokuba locked away. Not with Croquet's hand on the gun.

Seto rested back in the chair, eyes closed, and waited for the call to end. Pegasus continued to work throughout the call, but nothing he had open was for KaibaCorp. Maintaining interest then wouldn't have been as difficult, but Pegasus said nothing about Seto's silence.

By the time the call ended, Pegasus had his head in his hands, fingers rubbing his temples.

"It's only-" Seto leaned over to glance at the time on the computer monitor. "-Ten-fifteen. Tired of the work day already?"

"You run two companies from an island near a hundred miles from either headquarters. It's not like you lot give me much traveling time."

"That's your doing. You won't get sympathy from me."

"And if I told you to sympathize?"

Seto stopped when he couldn't think of an appropriate answer. Pegasus turned to meet Seto's gaze, holding it while waiting on a response. There wasn't a possible reply that would keep both of them content.

"I've told you before. I'll sympathize where I can. If you needed a day off to visit either company, you could figure it out."

"So you're not just kissing up to me today? And here I was thinking you would agree to anything."

"I'm not fighting you. Doesn't mean you make the best decisions."

There weren't many comfortable positions for Seto to sit in with his hands cuffed together. There was only so long he could keep them in his lap before his shoulders tensed, and his next best choice put his elbows on the arms of the chair and his hands over his stomach. It looked too defensive, too uncomfortable.

"I don't know, Seto. I might like watching you play teacher's pet."

"That won't do anything to gain your trust."

Pegasus lowered his hands and wiggled the mouse to wake up the blacked-out monitors. "Don't forget that I'm after your company as well. Maybe I prefer that company to be desperate for my approval."

"Isn't that what you're after already?"

"Are you offering?"

Stretching out his arms, Seto pushed away his breakfast plate that no one had come to collect. His elbows cracked when he extended them as far as they would go and Pegasus crinkled his nose at the sound. Seto cracked his knuckles while he thought about it, earning a tame glare from Pegasus.

"If you tell me that's the only way I'll end up with Mokuba. But you've made it clear you don't want me kissing at your heels. I'd bore you."

"It's a question, nothing more. I do have that arrangement with our Little Mokuba."

 _Our_.

It hadn't bothered him until that moment.

Now he heard it in front of all of their names and couldn't hold back the trail of shivers working down his arms.

"You mentioned contracts?"

"They're hardly interesting. Gaming companies wanting to partner. Licenses to sell in stores. Hiring on of new graphic designers."

"What happened to my graphic designers?"

"We're expanding. Only lost one due to an overseas move."

"You're expanding my company when profits are low?" Seto asked. He understood, but didn't think Pegasus capable of making such a decision. Then again, Seto wouldn't have expected him to kidnap seven people in the name of justice.

"I2 is backing the expansion. No worries, Kaiba-boy. Your company will be fine."

"Show me."

They reviewed the contracts until lunch. Seto warned Pegasus off three of them, two with wording he didn't trust and one from another company who had been looking to partner for years.

"Their CEO has been sending varying versions of this over since I took control," Seto said, "Put your foot down and he'll stop for at least half a year."

"You haven't been able to get him to stop permanently?"

"He's persistent. Though if you want it badly enough, I'm sure you'll work something out," Seto said without masking much of his bitterness.

It got an amused snort from Pegsaus. "Don't worry your little head. I'll get this all worked out."

But that contract was shredded and a note made on Pegasus's calendar to meet with the CEO himself. "To sort out this misunderstanding," he claimed. Maybe he would end up in a cell too, since that seemed to be how Pegasus solved most of his problems nowadays.

But it wouldn't benefit Seto to comment on that notion.

"Do you eat lunch at your desk?" Seto asked.

"It's nice out today. I thought we'd take it on the balcony."

Seto blinked.

"You're letting me outside?"

"Only way to the ground is forty feet over the edge. No water underneath to soften your fall this time."

"You sent men with guns after me," Seto said, standing when Pegasus did. "What other choice did I have?"

"That's not an argument in your favor right now."

"You're tense enough that no argument would favor me."

Seto followed Pegasus to the door, Croquet holding it open, and out into the hallway. Pegasus reached for the chain between Seto's wrists and grabbed on before holding Seto's hands up to the guards. "Down boys," Pegasus said, showing off the chain. "I'll let you know if he needs further restraining."

But he didn't let go of the chain. Instead, Pegasus led Seto by it, back in the way they had come, out in front of the processional following them. Seto's requests to allow him to walk on his own were met with laughs and dismissing amusement, leaving little else to do but memorize the area around them. They passed a door with a keypad beside it and Seto asked, "Who's in there?"

"Mr. Devlin."

"And I'm so much more difficult to keep locked away?"

"Than simply using an electronic lock? Absolutely."

Pegasus led them down a short flight of stairs that ended in front of a set of French doors. The grip on the handcuffs had to be released for Pegasus to open the doors and then gesture for Seto to step outside.

He closed his eyes when the breeze brushed over him. The cold was different than down in his cell. This one was touched with the heat of the sun and the bite from the fall weather. The combination chilled Seto while also managing to warm him. It was real, the salt in the air, the damp smell of the trees, the muddy scent like it had rained recently.

"Table's this way," Pegasus said.

Seto didn't walk to it, but to the railing around the stone balcony. It was different than the one he had been forced to duel Yugi on. Maybe on the back end of the castle. Like Pegasus had said, there were no staircases down, no other doors, just a steep drop to the ground. Seto didn't care. He had no plans for foolish risks today, but he cared about the view over the island, the ocean half a mile out, the trees spread below him.

He turned to look back at the castle, scanning the windows and wondering if one of them belonged to Mokuba.

"Seto, sit down."

"I'm not going anywhere," Seto said, but took the first few steps over to the table. "Just enjoying the view."

Pegasus stood until Seto sat. The table had four chairs around it, covered with a large umbrella that looked like it had been handpainted with a floral design. But sitting under it stole the heat from the sun and Seto shivered in response. Pegasus was better dressed than him and wore shoes rather than just socks like Seto.

"Can we close that?" Seto asked. He would have done it himself, but figured the handcuffs would complicate it too much.

"Of course."

Croquet walked over to complete the menial labor Pegasus thought himself above, and a woman came through the doors with two plates in hand, then a man with their drinks.

Seto tilted his face back to catch the light when the umbrella closed. He had never realized how different sunlight felt than artificial heating. The artificial heat was a constant, but the sunlight felt new every second, like Seto could sit under it for hours and never grow tired of the sensation.

"You're practically glowing," Pegasus said. Seto raised an eyebrow, prompting, "Your skin. It literally looks like it is glowing."

Seto lifted his hands and wasn't surprised to find that Pegasus was right. He had been underground for nearly eight months. All of the color in his skin had faded, and the blistering white didn't take well to the sun.

Ignoring the two people who brought over their lunch, Seto reached for his water with both hands since he didn't have much more of an option. He liked the dim burn of the sun hitting his fingers, flexing them once before grabbing the glass. Such a little thing shouldn't have captured his attention so fully.

"You see how nice this could be," Pegasus said. He had been brought wine rather than water, and Seto pushed down commentary about drinking during working hours.

"This is as pleasant as you'll get me," Seto said.

"We have two more chairs though. Add Little Mokuba and sweet Ryou and I'm sure you'd enjoy yourself."

"Bakura wouldn't make me any nicer."

"Of course he would. You two are thick as thieves."

Seto rolled his eyes and set down his glass. "Your jealousy never ceases to amaze, Max."

"You can admit that you can Ryou got along."

"Of necessity. It would be hard for me to wipe his ass if he wouldn't acknowledge me when I spoke."

"Language, Seto."

"You realize that it's ridiculous to restrict my vocabulary just because you don't like hearing it."

"I'm sure that's not the only thing I do you find unnecessary. Are you going to eat?"

The meal wasn't one of Seto's favorites, some pasta dish that had too much sauce. But he picked at it because he wanted to stay outside, both outside of the castle and of the glass room. Eating with his hands chained together was irritating and slowed his progress, and he did what he could to make it seem as if that was the reason for his lack of appetite.

"Are you happy?" Seto asked.

Pegasus finished his bite, washing it down with a larger gulp of wine than he had been taking. "I will be."

"How do you know?"

"That's the thing about hope. Maybe faith. You simply believe it."

"And you think you will trust us eventually? To the point this-" a tug at the cuffs, "-isn't necessary?"

"I hope."

Another gust of wind blew through, and Seto's hair was long enough that the strands tickled his nose as they were tousled. He closed his eyes and waited it out, enjoying the sensation while he could. Pegasus's lunch was half gone, so they would have to return to his office shortly.

"Mokuba insists you won't want a cake tomorrow," Pegasus said.

"He's right."

"You must want something."

"Just the time with Mokuba promised."

Pegasus nodded. "I'll uphold my end of our arrangement."

"Then that will have to be enough."

Seconds later, Seto caught Pegasus staring at him. He held Pegasus's gaze and waited for him to break the eye contact, but it lingered.

"What?"

"I hardly recognize you."

"Whose fault would you say that is?"

Pegasus's gaze didn't waver. "You know every step of this has been necessary."

"I know you believe it was."

"That's the best I'm going to get from you?"

Seto nodded.

"Finish your lunch. There's another conference call at one."


	38. Chapter 38

Seto sat back in his chair at the desk and noticed that his breakfast plate had been cleared. A bottle of water had been left in its place and a steaming mug of coffee on Pegasus's side of the desk.

It felt colder inside now.

Seto tugged at the ends of his sleeves and watched Pegasus dial into the call.

"This one won't be another two hours?" Seto asked.

"Product design," Pegasus said. "I'll have to contribute to this one."

That wasn't an answer, so Seto assumed it would be even longer than the first.

And the phone couldn't be muted since Pegasus had to participate. If Seto wanted to talk, he could, with no resistance. He could get at least a sentence out before someone stopped him and that would be all he needed to bring help to the island.

But Pegasus would have at least an hour to hide them all away before help could arrive. His dungeons were extensive enough that there had to be places to hide them where no one would look, and that would be the end of trust between them. Seto was a day from seeing Mokuba again. Without a foolproof plan, it wasn't a risk he would take.

Pegasus announced he was on the line and Croquet entered the room, walking up to the desk and standing a few feet from Seto. It would taken a simple, quick, ' _This is Seto Kaiba_ ' and everyone would know what Pegasus had done. Maybe he could explain it away by the time they silenced Seto. He was surprised they hadn't silenced him already.

Pegasus grabbed a notebook and pen, set it in between himself and Seto, then logged into a website tied to the call. Images of the cards appeared, likely in the order they would be discussed. Once logged in, Pegasus wrote a quick note to Seto.

_Be quiet._

Seto interlaced his fingers and propped his chin on them. He didn't see a point in writing his intentions back, but traced his gaze over the neatly formed letters on the page. Pegasus wrote like a font, and Seto checked the pen, calligraphy.

He sipped on the water while Pegasus worked and examined the images as they appeared on the screen. For having his artwork under scrutiny, Pegasus handled the feedback well, taking notes on where they thought changes to the designs should be made. Seto wrote a few notes of his own, more interested in these decisions than anything else Pegasus had gone over that morning, including the KaibaCorp work. The designs were all for a new set release, nothing that Seto would have bought, but the majority seemed to be in Wheeler's general likings. They hadn't titled the set yet, but it had to do with luck and fate, the cards themselves a mixture of traps and monsters, no spells.

Seto noted a similarity between two of the designs and Pegasus nodded, adding it to his list of notes. Croquet waited for Seto to drop the pen and sit back upright before the tension in his posture slacked, only marginally. Seto just adjusted his glasses and went back to listening for the feedback and judging himself whether it was worth taking. As much as Seto hated Pegasus, his designs were always impressive.

Seto tried not to think about the phone. It was difficult with the voices continually coming through, but Seto evened out the desire to say something by glancing at Croquet's hand on his gun, not his taser.

The progression of these tests wasn't lost on Seto. All the trust he had wanted to garner from Pegasus over the past months settled on this one day. Pegasus had shoved months' worth of testing into a few hours, and Seto hoped this was the last of them because the temptation to speak up was already fairly overwhelming.

Croquet stepped out of the room once the call ended. That left Pegasus and Seto alone, which must have been another test. They knew a single pair of handcuffs wouldn't stop Seto if he truly wanted to get out.

He corrected himself. He wanted to get out, but not without ensuring Mokuba's safety. This wasn't the time or the way, but it was the first chance he actually had since waking up in the room.

So it was a thinly veiled test since there were cameras mounted to the ceiling. Croquet and the guards might have been out of sight, but they weren't out of the equation.

Seto checked the clock and debated drawing Pegasus's strategy out into the open. If Seto acknowledged it was there, then maybe the games would end and he could have the trust without having to keep playing this game. But Pegasus had to know Seto would catch on. Admitting to it wouldn't get him anywhere, other than an argument. With two hours until the end of the work day, Seto could hold out.

"More contracts?" Seto asked.

"Mercifully no. I save the best for last."

Pegasus pulled up painting software on both of his monitors, a scanned image of a pencil sketch on one side and a half-drawn painting of the same image on the other.

"I thought you painted them all by hand," Seto said.

"If only there was the time for that. Even the hand painted ones have to be digitally rendered now. A good number of the originals are pictures of a painting, however. Your dragons, for example."

"When you said you didn't paint much anymore, did you mean because of this?"

Pegasus leaned his head to the side and lifted a shoulder. He brought a tablet and stylus out of his drawer and plugged them in, pushing the mouse to the edge of his desk.

"I doubt I would paint recreationally like this. There's something so personal about holding the paintbrush, the touch of the canvas, the paint stains on your hands. This is very—" he paused in search of the word, "—starch."

"What's this one?"

"Crypt Guardian. Defensive earth monster. No effects."

Seto scanned the sketch before looking at the partially colored version. "So basically Labyrinth Wall come to life?"

"Basically."

"You're running out of ideas."

"Well," Pegasus said, starting on his painting. "I could always release another version of Kaibaman."

"That was hardly funny."

"It was hilarious."

"I should have sued you for slander."

Pegasus laughed, but the movement didn't shake his hand. He did put down the pen a moment later to braid back his hair, not tying it with anything, but tight enough to keep it out of his face while he worked. The end fell loose.

"I would have won that trial in a heartbeat. 'Mr. Kaiba—'" Pegasus started, voice low and heavily exaggerated. "'—are you claiming you've never considered dressing in that manner? Your current attire suggests otherwise.'"

"I wouldn't have worn the trenchcoat to a trial."

"You know, with your hair that long, you're starting to look more like him. I could get you a mask. Halloween is just a week away."

"I'll cut it the first chance you give me."

Pegasus glanced over. "I don't know. The disheveled look is growing on me."

"Pegasus."

" _Fine_. Soon."

Seto nodded and took a sip from his water. Soon didn't mean much when it came from Pegasus, but it was the closest Seto had gotten to an agreement this whole time. It would have to do for now.

"I expected you to act differently today," Pegasus said after around half an hour of silence.

"Frightened or angry?"

"I'm not sure. You've kept up your calm exterior fairly well."

"Maybe I'm just calm."

"Seto Kaiba? Calm? Oh no. You must be seething or horrified that I'll lock you back away at any moment. But you're holding the act splendidly."

Pegasus had given up working so he could meet Seto's gaze. Sitting close increased the intensity and turned the conversation into a battle. Only, Seto knew he couldn't win this one. Whether he admitted to acting the entire day or convinced Pegasus that his calm was genuine, Pegasus won.

"Isn't this what you want? A start?"

Without breaking gaze, Pegasus reached into his pocket and produced a handcuff key. Seto frowned at it before looking at to Pegasus, braid almost completely loose by this point, and swallowed. He couldn't be serious.

Seto would ki—

 _Do nothing_.

This had to be the final test, giving Seto every chance to fight back while not being at too much of a risk. There was a chance that Seto could succeed if he somehow got the gun Pegasus carried. He could threaten to kill Pegasus if Croquet and the other guards didn't back away, demand to be taken to Mokuba, force Pegasus to lead them to a boat. Seto could try, but he would fail. If this was really a test, Pegasus wouldn't have a loaded weapon. He wouldn't take the risk.

They would be prepared for whatever Seto could throw at them. It was the same thing Seto warned Bakura against. Pegasus would give them a chance to prove themselves.

He had to play smarter than Pegasus.

"You're uncuffing me?" Seto asked.

"I'm not foolish enough to think that a weak little chain would stop you, Kaiba-boy."

Seto let him take off the cuffs, rubbing his wrists although they hadn't been hurt.

Pegasus continued.

He took out his taser and gun, setting them on the desk well within Seto's reach. The key to the handcuffs was placed beside them, and Pegasus snapped them on his own wrists.

Seto stared.

 _Trust Pegasus to come up with a definite final test_. He must have trusted Seto to hand over his weapon so blatantly, even if it wasn't loaded, even if the taser wasn't charged. Even if Seto had been weakened from his time locked away, he was still capable of fighting back. The gun was still a weapon; he could knock Pegasus out cold with it.

"My my, how your brain is spinning, Kaiba. I don't need my old Eye to see that."

"What will this prove?"

"We'll see."

It was a trick, an illusion of a choice. Seto's choices were to do nothing or to return to the display case for even longer than before. It was getting to see Mokuba tomorrow versus seeing him in years.

But the gun was right there.

He wondered how quickly Croquet and the guards would swarm into the room if he grabbed it. Pegasus sat close enough that he could get the gun to his head before the door opened. Assuming the gun was loaded.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Seto said. "Whatever the point of this is, that's your answer."

"But Seto, you could kill me now."

"You didn't hand me a loaded gun."

Pegasus reached for it, fumbling a moment with his cuffed hands before popping out the clip to show Seto. Completely full.

He put it back where it had been and moved his hands away.

"You're insane."

"And you're not shooting me."

"I'm not going to."

"Why?"

"I'm not an idiot," Seto said. He pushed back in the chair, moving it from the desk and the weapons. "Aside from the fact that you have a swarm of men outside the door, killing you won't get us off this island. What are Croquet's orders? Shoot us on sight or let us rot in our rooms?"

"The Kaiba I know would have shot me already."

"The Kaiba you knew didn't have all the information. Mokuba's still at risk. Take back your gun."

Pegasus smiled, but left the gun where it was. "So if Little Mokuba wasn't at risk, you would have killed me?"

"Absolutely."

A brief pause.

"I believe you."

Pegasus left the gun but reached for the handcuff key. The door opened as he took them off, and Pegasus gave Croquet a quick nod, which was met in turn and followed by the door closing again.

"Is the taser charged?"

"No. I thought you might use it for the sake of it."

"You didn't think I would shoot you."

"Of course not. Doesn't hurt to be sure."

The gun and taser were holstered again, but Pegasus pocketed the handcuffs as well. His monitors had gone to sleep, so he woke them to continue working.

"Is that the end of your trust exercises?" Seto asked.

"That's all I have planned."

"Good. They were getting old."

Seto crossed his arms now that he could. He glanced down at them and decided that he probably could have with the cuffs on, but not comfortably. He crossed his legs as well, tapping his foot against the desk. It didn't seem to bother Pegasus's work. Having shoes might have helped.

"Are you mad that I tested you?"

"Not if that's what you needed to get me out."

"You are going back in that room tonight."

"I know."

Somehow the admission made the time roll by more quickly. Sitting at Pegasus's desk watching him color in the brown eyes of his Crypt Guardian was hardly more interesting than being in the glass room. So he chanced standing to look out the window again. Pegasus didn't stop him, or even glance over to see what he was doing. Maybe the trust exercises had done their job or maybe Pegasus trusted the men watching through the cameras to inform him if Seto tried anything. He had to assume it was the guards watching or the fact that Pegasus carried a loaded gun.

Seto leaned against the window and stared out at the ocean. The sun was nearing the horizon, not to the point of sunset, but maybe an hour or so away. Another few weeks and the time would change. But the current time darkened the sun enough that Seto didn't need to squint so long as he kept his gaze away from it, focusing more on the waves or the deepening shadows stretching toward the castle.

"Which direction is my room going to face?"

Pegasus paused and lifted his face to the ceiling as if deep in thought. He pursed his lips before letting out a quiet, "Ohh," then in sudden revelation, turned to Seto. "East. Sun'll come up through your window."

"And Mokuba?"

"His room is directly beside yours. Same view."

"Is it really a wing?"

"Not quite. I remodeled two rooms to create the Kaiba Wing. They were both large, so no worries about your space. One of the rooms was a sitting room, so that is now your living room and kitchen. The other was a bedroom, divided with a wall down the middle so you and Little Mokuba have some privacy. And there's a bathroom, of course."

Three rooms and a bathroom was more space than Seto had in all this time, so he wasn't much concerned with close quarters. Privacy wasn't an issue either, for him, at least. Mokuba wouldn't want it initially, but down the line, he would need space.

Seto stayed by the window until Pegasus finished working. He didn't move until prompted, taking in the view one last time before having to return to the white walls and artificial light. And even when Pegasus gestured for him to head to the door, Seto stuck to his spot a moment longer, closing his eyes as if he could still feel the breeze.

Less than a day until he could see Mokuba. At least he wouldn't be going back down for nothing.

It didn't make the steps to the door any easier, but it gave him something else to think on. He walked beside Pegasus, catching the subtle nod from Croquet before he fell into line behind them. Pegasus's steps lightened and he hummed a melody Seto didn't recognize as they headed back to the elevator.

Only Croquet joined Seto and Pegasus inside, the other guards hanging back to wait on the next one down. Pegasus continued to hum and Seto listened to his own breathing rather than the cheerful song.

"I apologize-" Pegasus said, turning to Seto as the elevator rocked to a stop, "-that he isn't in better health."

The doors opened before Seto could question the statement and Pegasus didn't wait on him before heading down toward the opened glass. Croquet had to nudge Seto forward before the doors closed again because Seto was distracted trying to think back to if they had been talking about anyone or anything to trigger the statement.

Pegasus paused outside of the room and bounced up on his toes, hands behind his back and a pleased smile on his lips. In his confusion, Seto made his way down the hall slowly, but then realized the only thing that would have Pegasus so excited for Seto to end up back in the room.

He practically ran the rest of the way, catching himself with a hand on the wall and spinning to look in his room, at Mokuba, curled up on his bed.

"He stays until tomorrow night," Pegasus said, although his words were distant because Mokuba was there. Only fragments of images worked through Seto's thoughts—medicine bottles on the side table, extra blankets, water bottles on the bookshelf—because Mokuba was there. Even from feet away, Seto heard the heaviness of Mokuba's breathing, the congestion Pegasus must have been referring to before.

"Why?" Seto asked. The agreement had been for the next day, to spend it together. This hadn't been what Seto expected.

He expected much less.

"Because when he was sick in Rome, all he wanted was to sleep in your bed."

Seto nodded once, then again, having to stop himself by rubbing a hand over his mouth. He heard the elevator doors behind him and didn't care that the men were coming down to lock him inside.

"Thank you."

Pegasus's smile this time was one of the first Seto believed.

"Go on."

Seto did. Even though Mokuba was asleep and sick, Seto woke him gently, sitting on the bed beside him and shaking his shoulder.

"Mokuba," he whispered, aware that Pegasus was still watching.

Mokuba's eyes opened and blinked, and in a startled leap, threw himself around Seto. He pressed as close to him as he could, squeezing tighter the more he woke. Seto returned the hug, the first actual hug he had been able to give since before all this.

They stayed like that until Mokuba started coughing, turning from Seto and covering his mouth with an elbow.

"Sorry I'm sick," he said.

Seto looked at him, too thin, too pale, too tired, and brushed his hair from his face. He seemed older. Maybe it was the weight loss, maybe the time, or maybe the exhaustion in his eyes. But he was here. Aside from a raw nose, he wasn't hurt.

Seto hugged him again, pressing his lips to the top of his head and for once not caring that the glass was coming back down.


	39. Chapter 39

"I'll bring down your dinner in a bit," Pegasus said.

Mokuba flinched at the sound of the speaker. It had startled Seto at first, all that time ago, and seeing Mokuba's reaction to it made Seto think it wasn't so harsh of a noise on the other side.

Pegasus left them alone for the first time in months.

Seto couldn't stop staring at Mokuba, like if he stared hard enough, he would be able to see everything he had missed. The knowledge that Mokuba was sick hardly processed until Mokuba went through another coughing fit, this time shaking his entire body. Seto rubbed a hand over Mokuba's back until it ended, and then he felt the tremor under his hand.

"Running a fever?" Seto asked.

"S'what Torra said."

"Here." Seto lifted the blanket for Mokuba to slide underneath, propping the pillow up at the same time so Mokuba wouldn't have to lie flat.

"When was the last time you took something?"

"Lunch?"

Turning for the pill bottles, Seto picked up one of them, checking the labels for instructions. They both said every four hours, so Seto went to the bookshelf for a bottle of water since Mokuba had never been able to take pills dry.

"It's creepier inside," Mokuba said. His voice sounded as hoarse as Wheeler's had been, so after taking the pills, Seto prompted him to drink more of the water than he needed to get them down.

"You don't get used to it," he said with a glance to the glass. "We won't be going to any zoos after this."

"You think we'll get an after?"

Seto nodded. "We will."

He slid down beside Mokuba, getting an arm underneath the pillow and using his shoulder to position Mokuba against his side. Mokuba fell into place without complaint. He rested his cheek on the pillow with his forehead nearly touching Seto's jaw, and Seto adjusted the blankets around him so he was covered. He smoothed Mokuba's bangs out of his face and trailed his fingertips over Mokuba's head. Too warm.

"Where did you pick up a sinus bug?"

Mokuba tried to shrug, but couldn't really manage from his position. "I don't know. Pegasus thinks maybe he brought it in from one of the guys on a grocery run."

Mokuba still shivered, so Seto pulled him tighter. He could let up once the bed had warmed, but until then, Mokuba didn't seem to mind the contact. Hopefully the medicine would kick in and take away the worst of the symptoms.

"You weren't in here today," Mokuba said.

"I convinced him to let me work with him for a day. First one out since the infirmary."

"That didn't really count."

Seto chuckled. "It didn't. How long have you been sick?"

"Two days? Do you count today when counting days?"

"This late in the day? I'd say so."

"Then two."

"He should tell me things like this," Seto said. He thought about letting Mokuba go to sleep, but selfishly decided against it. They only had a day and a good portion of it would be sleeping since Mokuba would be on a regular sleep schedule. Whenever Mokuba said he needed sleep, Seto would relent him to it.

"It's the first time I've been sick," Mokuba said. "He was probably hoping it'd go away by tomorrow."

"Doesn't change the fact that I should be told."

Not that Seto would know what to do with the information. He never would have assumed Pegasus would let them stay together for any part of an illness, so the best he could have offered was advice on how to help Mokuba through it. Even that was better than not knowing. What else had happened that Pegasus wasn't telling them?

"Your bed is little," Mokuba said. He shifted around, knocking his legs into Seto's and scooting in a little closer. The shivering had calmed, although every few seconds, another tremor hit.

"You also have a twin." At least that was what Seto had seen from the pictures.

"Yeah, but for two people?"

"And you've gotten so big," Seto said. He tilted his face up and away while another coughing fit overtook Mokuba, who did his best to keep his mouth covered. But once it was over, Mokuba fell back against Seto's shoulder and the pillow.

"Not so much. When'd you get tall? Sixteen?"

"Around fifteen. You've got a while." He hoped.

Another year, almost as long as they'd been trapped away from each other. What would they do if Pegasus decided that Seto needed the full two years he had initially mentioned? What if Pegasus took the threat of Mokuba's sixteenth birthday seriously? Seto didn't know how to handle the thought of only seeing Mokuba again once he stood at eye level, once he had grown, once he wasn't a kid anymore. How much longer would he want to lie like this when he was sick or scared?

"What if we have to do another year of this?" Mokuba said.

"We won't. I'll figure this out."

"You promised that a while ago."

"I'm getting closer. Really, I'm almost there."

Mokuba had to breathe through his mouth, and even then Seto heard the effort each one took through the congestion. His throat must have been raw from the drainage and coughing, and talking couldn't be helping.

"Do you want to sleep until the medicine kicks in?"

Mokuba nodded. "Is that bad?"

"Of course not. Let's sit up a little more. It'll help."

Seto pulled Mokuba up with him. He propped himself back against the wall and adjusted the pillow so Mokuba could use his body as a support while he reclined back. He fixed the blankets again, tucking a little behind Mokuba so his back had support.

Mokuba was already asleep.

He slept until Pegasus arrived with dinner, and Seto couldn't doze off because Mokuba was there. He refused to miss another moment, but watched Mokuba through each breath, taking note as they became easier.

"Good afternoon, Kaiba bro—now Seto, I know you didn't let him fall asleep on you."

The speaker woke Mokuba, but he wiggled farther down under the blankets and against Seto's side. It brought back memories of rushed mornings, trying to get Mokuba up in time for Seto to take him to school, usually failing since Mokuba hated little more than waking up. Those mornings had felt so frustrating at the time.

"He's sick."

"But this is your birthday extravaganza! I even let you start a day early."

"He's sick," Seto repeated.

"You're a noisy pillow," Mokuba said. Seto doubted it was loud enough for Pegasus to have heard. Mokuba still hadn't lifted his head from the mess of bedding he had buried it in.

"I brought dinner, and your times are combined. Wake the sleepy head up."

"He's awake."

"Then sit him up. He needs to eat. Chicken soup for the soul," Pegasus said, lifting the two bowls in his hands. Steam rose off the top and Seto had to admit Mokuba could use it. And he had to eat even if Seto didn't. Seto might not, depending on how hungry Mokuba turned out to be.

"All right, kid. It's time to eat."

"Ugh. No. No moving."

"Your pillow is going to be getting up."

Mokuba's arm wrapped around Seto's waist and held him there. Normally it wouldn't have stopped Seto, but Mokuba's grip felt stronger than Seto was used to. He could have gotten out, but it would have required more effort than he needed before.

"I'll be your pillow on the floor," Seto said. "Blankets can come."

A gray eye met Seto's and the redness around it almost convinced Seto that moving wasn't worthwhile. But Seto got Mokuba sitting, mostly because he was propped on Seto and when Seto sat up, Mokuba was forced to follow. Seto's fingers moved to feel the sides of Mokuba's neck, just under his ears, finding the area swollen. Mokuba winced at the pressure, so Seto let up to tap around his sinuses.

"All sensitive?"

Mokuba nodded.

"You need to eat. Keep up that energy so we aren't napping this whole time."

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right."

Seto went for the bowls while Mokuba moved to sit on the floor by the foot of the bed. The blanket stayed wrapped around him while he moved, and he pulled part of it up over his head like a hood. Just his face and hands stuck out.

"No better?" Pegasus asked.

"Medicine's sort of working."

Mokuba's voice sounded a little better, but after setting down the bowl, Seto went back for the water bottle before giving it to Mokuba. It was half-empty, but there were more on the bookshelf for once he finished it off.

"Good, good. You'll have to let Seto know when you need more of it. There's no clock for him to keep up with your doses."

"I don't suppose I could borrow your watch," Seto said. Judging from the medicines, Seto didn't think overdosing would be an issue, but was more concerned with waiting too long between each one.

"Didn't wear it down. I could have someone page you through the speaker."

Seto nodded and put the soup bowl in Mokuba's hands since he hadn't reached out for it. He took a second to appreciate Mokuba sitting right beside him before picking up his own dinner. He couldn't see much of Mokuba's face from the side, not with the blanket over his head like it was, but it didn't matter.

Pegasus couldn't take him away again.

"Look at you two. The Kaiba brothers together again. I should've brought a camera."

"I'm going to get you sick," Mokuba said, leaning forward a bit to get his face clear of the blanket.

"Now Mokuba," Pegasus said. "Look at me carefully. Do you really think he cares if you transfer a few germs his way?"

Mokuba stirred the spoon around in the bowl. "No."

Pegasus just answered for Seto, a question from Mokuba, aimed at Seto, and he answered for him. Without being prompted or wanted, Pegasus answered Mokuba.

For Seto.

"It'll get cold," Seto said, quietly, so only Mokuba could hear him. Pegasus would leave in half an hour and then they would be alone until morning. Ten minutes in the morning, then a full day with Mokuba alone.

Pegasus had mentioned more frequent visits through the holidays. It might not end up as another four months separated, but even waiting until Thanksgiving would be a month. Christmas another after that. It was better, but not good enough.

Mokuba drank from his bowl like a cup, holding the spoon back with a thumb. Pegasus seemed to almost say something, but a look from Seto stopped him. The worst Mokuba could do was spill some, and he was using an extra blanket that would be taken up with him. Either way, any accidents would be Seto's concern, and Mokuba wasn't likely to have issue unless a coughing fit hit him mid-sip.

"If your soup isn't filling enough, Little Mokuba, Seto has a store of snacks on his shelf."

Mokuba glanced to Seto for confirmation, so Seto gave him a quick nod. Mokuba stretched up to look over the shelf.

"Top row," Seto said.

"I just see pictures of me."

"Snacks are farther back."

"I doubt they're anything good," Mokuba said. He took another sip from his bowl and leaned closer to Seto. The blanket was too thick to feel if Mokuba had stopped shivering, but since he hadn't put down the blanket, Seto assumed that the fever hadn't gone all the way down. That or Mokuba liked being bundled, which was an option Seto couldn't rule out.

It had been eight months. How much would Mokuba have changed?

"Only healthy foods for my favorite guests," Pegasus said. "Fine, all of my guests. Although we can't pretend that our Seto would eat anything without appropriate nutrients."

"My Seto," Mokuba said. "Not yours."

He took another sip.

"We'll have to disagree there. Didn't Seto teach you to share?"

"I've got to pee," Mokuba said, setting down his soup before standing. The blanket pooled around his ankles before he marched off into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

Seto met Pegasus's gaze. "I'm going to tell him."

A short pause came before Pegasus answered. "I don't think that's wise."

"He won't come to it on his own, with any amount of prompting. It's time."

Pegasus glanced over to the door, foot tapping against the leg of his chair. "It'll ruin your birthday."

"It won't."

Mokuba opened the door and stepped out. He dropped back onto the blanket without making any effort to reposition it around his shoulders, but did pick up the bowl, saying, "What's it not wise to tell me?" before taking another sip.

Seto waited for permission. If Pegasus insisted that he stay quiet on the subject, Seto would, but Mokuba knowing there was some secret being kept meant Pegasus would have a harder time denying it and expecting Seto to deny it as well.

"Go ahead," Pegasus said. He settled back as a clear sign he wasn't leaving.

If Seto wanted to tell Mokuba, he would have to do so in front of Pegasus. Which meant more careful wording, potential lies.

It could be corrected after he left.

"Why we're here."

Mokuba put down the bowl again and gave Seto his full attention. "You know?"

"Since just after your birthday."

Mokuba nodded. "I guess it's not just because he's lonely? Tell me."

Seto hadn't been planning on telling Mokuba and he didn't know where to begin with this sort of revelation. He had worked toward it himself for months, and that involved Pegasus having set out the groundwork for Seto's conclusion to stand.

"Remember how at Duelist Kingdom, he needed SolidVision?" Seto said. It was rhetorical since Mokuba clearly hadn't forgotten, but Mokuba bobbed his head, gaze locked onto Seto's.

"He was trying to bring back his wife."

Mokuba's lips tightened and he bit at the corner of one for a moment before asking, "From where?"

"From death."

The horror Seto expected never came, but Mokuba spun around to face Pegasus, whose face was as neutral as Seto had ever seen it. His foot had stopped bouncing. Seto doubted he was capable of it with how rigid his posture had become.

"You don't wear a ring," Mokuba said.

Pegasus reached up to the collar of his suit, loosening his tie to reach a finger under, bringing it back out with a chain looped around, a gold ring at the end.

"Over my heart. Always."

"Okay," Mokuba said, turning his face back to Seto, and Seto watched Pegasus slide the ring on his finger before hiding it again. "We were all there, not Duke, I guess. Did do something too?"

"Duke is a mistake," Seto said. "It was supposed to be Taylor."

"But… I asked if this was revenge. You said-" he turned to Pegasus. "-You said no."

Pegasus held a hand up in gesture to Seto, bringing Mokuba's gaze back around.

"It's justice, not revenge."

"You don't believe that."

Seto met Pegasus's gaze. "But I accept it."

If Mokuba argued too much now, he might end up ruining what Seto had been working to build. After his speech the week before about not fighting anymore, proving it in front of Mokuba might be Seto's best chance. In a few minutes, he could correct any misconceptions Mokuba gained during the rest of the conversation. Pegasus might watch, but they could be careful.

"Wouldn't justice be killing us?"

He went to Pegasus for the answer, pausing a moment to sneeze twice before lifting his gaze to Pegasus. "Why not kill us?"

"Because you were, and are, children."

"We didn't know," Mokuba said, then back to Seto, "Right?"

"Right."

"Unfortunately, ignorance isn't an excuse," Pegasus said. He was acting much calmer than he had when Seto found out the truth. The tension hadn't left, but he also hadn't stormed out or started shouting. Maybe having someone else explain it helped. Or having someone know for so long tempered his anxiety about others knowing.

"I'm sorry," Mokuba said. "I didn't know you were married."

"Well now you do."

"Maybe not now, because I know this is hard for you, but maybe someday you can tell me about her? How you met, what she looked like, if she liked cartoons?"

The neutrality fell into shock. A minute passed, then two or three, all in silence. After another sneeze from Mokuba, Pegasus stood, knocking into the chess set and stumbling to the speaker controls with a mumbled, "Goodnight."

He clicked them off and left.

"Did I say something wrong?" Mokuba asked.

Seto stared after Pegasus. "That might have been the first thing any of us have done right."


	40. Chapter 40

Seto woke with Mokuba's face inches from his, sticky breath hitting Seto's skin every few seconds. At least now he didn't need to concern himself with avoiding exposure to whatever germ had worked its way into Mokuba's sinuses. If he got sick, he got sick.

He watched Mokuba sleep for a while. His gaze traced the lines of Mokuba's face in search of any differences. Maybe his nose was a little longer than before. He was too thin to have any of his baby fat left, so his cheekbones stood out more. But after a restless night, his hair had slipped out of the ponytail he had fallen asleep with, and the strands framing his face brought back the Mokuba Seto remembered. That was good. Maybe it wasn't too late to witness the little remaining time of Mokuba's childhood.

Mokuba woke up coughing, bringing a hand up to his face a second too late.

"I'm sorry," he said while Seto wiped phlegm off his chin.

"You should take another dose."

"Happy birthday."

"Thank you."

"I didn't mean to cough on you."

"I'd be much less accepting of it if I thought you had," Seto said. He sat up and popped his neck before reaching over to the side table for his glasses. After finding them, he poured Mokuba's medicine into his palm and handed them over with the bottle of water.

"Sleeping with the lights on is weird."

"Better than being awake with them off."

"Yeah?" Mokuba took the pills. "What time does he normally come down?"

"No clock."

"He visits me a little before eight."

"Bakura is between us. So maybe seven-thirty."

"He's never walked out on me like that before," Mokuba said.

"He'll be here."

"'Cause it's your birthday?"

Seto stood and ran his fingers back through his hair, shaking out the tangles from sleep. Mokuba's presence seemed to throw off his internal clock, which had adjusted to Pegasus's schedule. He didn't know if he had enough time to shower before the morning visit. It would have to wait until after, to be safe, but he could get the rest of his routine finished, pausing if Pegasus showed up.

"He wanted you to know."

"Didn't seem that way."

"He's been worried about responses."

"But you think he liked my answer."

"He expected a fight and you gave him repentance. I'm going to shave. Do you need in there first?"

Mokuba shook his head. "There's only one bathroom in our room upstairs. We'll have to get used to sharing."

"If you'd cut your hair, the showers wouldn't take so long."

"You don't want me to cut it."

"No," Seto said, "I do like it longer."

"I'll cut it off eventually. Just not today."

Seto headed for the bathroom and started his shave, leaving his glasses on to catch Mokuba in the reflection, leaning back against the door where it slid into the wall. "You considered breaking the mirror and using it on the wall?"

"It wouldn't break through the glass and it'd shatter on the concrete bricks."

"There's really no way out of here?"

"Cooperation."

Seto rubbed the shaving cream between his palms before applying it to his jaw, flickering his attention from his reflection to the reflection of Mokuba. He had gone through all the scenarios for escape with Bakura, although not the version of him who seemed capable of breaking out of anything. Mokuba wouldn't come up with anything new.

"You still think he's going to let you out?"

Shaking his head would have snagged the razor, so without moving his lips, Seto answered, "I don't know."

"He can't expect you to live in here forever. This is crazy town. It's—"

"Toon World?" Seto offered.

Mokuba's laugh was cut off by a short round of coughing, but he raised his head back with a grin. "Yeah. It's Toon World. But you can't live in Toon World. Eventually you have to, well, I don't know, grow up?"

"He doesn't much care about the natural progression of age."

"He's a fruitcake. He really thinks we killed his wife?"

They had discussed it for a while after Pegasus left the night before, but Mokuba asked for the night to think it over once they reached the life for a life issue. Seto had assumed that would be the hardest part for Mokuba to accept, so Seto hadn't pushed it. Mokuba wouldn't care much about the technical details of their imprisonment. His mind had always centered more on the personal elements, why Pegasus felt like this scheme had been necessary, if he expected this plan to fulfill him.

"Killed her, kept her dead, it's something like that. Have you started shaving?"

Mokuba shook his head and Seto exhaled gently through his lips while finishing the left half of his face. That was a first Pegasus hadn't stolen from him. He hoped there hadn't been any in the past eight months.

"You should hear me not sick though. I basically sound sick."

"Voice changing?"

"Yeah. If Pegasus calls me 'little frog' one more time I might start throwing stuff."

Seto rinsed off his razor before returning to finish off his shave. He didn't answer Mokuba while working over the crease in his chin, but answered once he was done. "Maybe that's why I'm behind glass. He knows I can't throw things at him."

"You'd be throwing fists," Mokuba said.

"That's very true. But not anymore. We're not fighting like that."

Seto also made sure to establish his plans with Mokuba to prevent any accidental slip ups like they almost had the night before. Mokuba had to be in on the plan to keep Pegasus content, calm, and complacent. Or at least to get him to that point. The more the three of them were around each other, the better Mokuba would be at playing on it. Mokuba had the people skills Seto lacked.

The speaker came on while Seto rinsed his face, and Mokuba leaned his head over, likely to look at Pegasus.

"He's shaving. It'll be like, thirty seconds."

"Did he sleep in that late?" Pegasus asked.

"I did. He got up with me."

"Oh good. I was worried he might have already come down with your bug."

"Nah, he's fine. And now," Mokuba said, glancing back into the bathroom. "Freshly shaven."

Seto messed with Mokuba's hair as he walked back into the bedroom, blinking once at the balloons in Pegasus's hand.

"Happy birthday, Kaiba-boy."

"Am I turning four?"

"Your room is white,  _static_. I thought you might appreciate some color."

Pegasus tied them off to his chair before moving to the hatch with breakfast. The tray had already placed on the floor before Seto had left the bathroom, but now he started unloading through the hatch.

"A breakfast fit for two little princes," Pegasus said. "You did say I could have that one back."

Seto winced. "I did say that."

"What back?" Mokuba asked.

"The nickname, little prince. Somehow less appealing than Kaiba-boy."

"But even more accurate," Pegasus said. He set a mug on the floor in the bedroom, but rather than coffee, it looked like chocolate milk. "For Mokuba," he explained, then added, "You get the orange juice."

It was the largest breakfast Pegasus had brought in, probably the largest meal overall. He had the regular breakfast plate with eggs, toast, sausage, and a few extra strips of bacon, but also two bowls of fruit, the drinks, a larger bowl of muffins, and a side of hashbrowns.

"It's a bit much," Seto said.

"It's your birthday, and since you aren't going to be getting calories and fattening food from desserts, you will just get extra servings. Besides, Little Mokuba is a growing boy. He might want the additional food. Although," Pegasus said, turning his attention to Mokuba. "I didn't add sugar to these. We can both agree it throws off the texture."

Feeling as though there was some joke he wasn't a part of, Seto knelt down to move the food over to the foot of the bed where Mokuba had settled. He reached for the milk first, but Seto paused to feel Mokuba's head. No fever.

He gave Mokuba the mug.

"Can you leave the hatch unlocked?" Seto asked. "This will make the room smell if we leave it in all day."

"That's doable. Maybe that can be my present to you, a day without the lingering smell of bacon."

"I'd hope it would be something better than that," Mokuba said.

"Yes, because Seto here gave me such a lovely gift for my birthday."

Mokuba peeked up at Seto.

"I showered through it," he mouthed, facing away from Pegasus and the camera.

"But regardless," Pegasus said after sitting back in the chair now surrounded with balloons, "The spoiled little prince will get a birthday gift. That comes later on, though."

Seto picked at the fruit while Mokuba ate the bacon off both plates. It was difficult not to give Mokuba all his attention, but half the point of this, for Pegasus at least, was to prove he wouldn't be ignored once they were together. Any conversation had to include him.

But he hadn't come in angry from the night before. Mokuba's response must have been what he needed to hear.

"Who does your cooking?" Mokuba asked.

"I employ two chefs."

"They cook bacon really good. Better than Seto, even."

"You cook, Kaiba?"

"On occasion."

Mokuba snorted, which came out more of a breath with his congestion. "Yeah, like breakfast."

Seto gently elbowed Mokuba, who met his gaze with a grin, then went back to eating. A bit of his hair stuck out at an odd angle beside his ear, so Seto reached over to smooth it down. It popped back up the moment his hand came away and Seto let it stay.

"I didn't used to think you two looked much alike. I see it more now. It's in the bone structure."

"You'd think an artist would have seen that sooner," Seto said. He sipped from his cup to stall while Mokuba ate the parts of breakfast he wanted.

"You've grown into your features. It's much more prominent now."

Mokuba paused before taking a bite from his toast and used a hand to tilt Seto's face toward him, pursing his lips while studying it. He brushed Seto's bangs out of the way, still long enough that they covered half of his face when not tended to.

"I don't see it," Mokuba said, then returned to the food.

"Because you're too busy eating the birthday boy's breakfast."

"Seto will eat the fruit, eggs, and maybe a slice of toast."

Pegasus glanced at Seto for confirmation and received a nod. "You heard the kid," Seto said. "He's got my order."

"You eat the rest of what I bring you on every other morning."

"Because you bring two meals a day. I can't afford to skip anything."

"And you said the muffins tasted fine," Mokuba said. He had picked one out of the bowl, blueberry, from the look of it, and worked on pulling down its wrapping.

"The taste was fine. It was the texture that was a little grainy."

Pegasus checked his watch.

"I really don't get cake today?" Mokuba asked.

"You are getting a day with Seto. Isn't that much better?"

"Well yeah," Mokuba said. "But cake would only make it all the more better."

"You and our Ryou with your sweet tooths. Sweet teeth? That can't be it. Your penchants for sweet foods are hard to keep up with while keeping you healthy. Honestly, Kaiba, how have you managed this for so long?"

"You can always say no."

"That hardly feels appropriate. Just look at that face!"

Seto looked over at Mokuba.

"It's all right."

And it was Seto's turn to get elbowed in the side.

Pegasus left shortly after for "a day of trivial work matters that would bore even the most dedicated employee." The balloons held Seto's gaze for a while, mostly to run through scenarios about how they got to the island. Pegasus probably didn't keep stores of helium lying around. Maybe he made a trip back to the mainland for it, but that was a lot of effort just to add some color to a bland space. If that was really all he meant by them, he must have had dozens of paints scattered about. Mokuba's painting hung on an almost-empty wall, bare save for the light fixtures. It would have made an acceptable canvas.

"You weren't really going to eat any of the stuff I did, right Seto?"

"Of course not. You had it right."

"He's got that way of making it sound like he knows you better than anyone. If he weren't so loony, I'd say he should've been a shrink."

"Let's hope no one has ever taken life counsel from Maximillion Pegasus," Seto said. "But you know we're going to need to pretend we are."

"Yeah. It's a good thing I took that drama class after school last year. Last year? Year before last? We've been here long enough I guess I can't say last year about stuff anymore. Soon last year will be all this happening now."

"You know we're going to be okay," Seto said.

"Of course!" Mokuba said. He put a hand on Seto's leg as if to assure him of that. "Sorry. I'm being a Grinch on your birthday. Can you be a Grinch on holidays other than Christmas?"

"The point stands. Why don't you tell me what you and Pegasus have been doing all this time? I don't know how much of his account is genuine."

Mokuba's hand moved away, back toward the food, although the bites had slowed. Seto wanted to lecture about why eating six slices of bacon would make him sluggish, but this hardly seemed like the place for it. Once they had escaped and had made a new home for themselves, then Seto could resume the physical health speeches.

"We painted a lot," Mokuba said. "Okay, not a lot, but most Saturdays and Sundays. He never really painted much of anything. Swirls, or maybe like, extreme close-ups of something. Other than that, we just talked. Twenty minutes a day isn't much."

Seto nodded. "Or it's too much."

They finished breakfast and Mokuba volunteered to move the leftovers into the hallway since Seto shouldn't have to work on his birthday. Seto argued that he always worked on his birthday before, but Mokuba refused to hear it. Denying Mokuba the effort only allowed for a few sarcastic remarks, which Seto hadn't gotten to hear from his brother since the video he had been shown weeks before, but even that hardly counted.

"What's twenty like?"

"About the same as nineteen," Seto said. "You want to shower?"

Mokuba shook his head. "You first. I'll use up all the hot water."

"I hope he has more hot water than normal houses. He's got to heat a castle."

Mokuba grinned. "It's not like we had a normal house. And I used all the hot water like, daily."

"It's the hair," they agreed together.

Seto relented to take the first shower, then waited on Mokuba to finish his own. Seto used the time to try to get his hair to dry mostly out of his eyes, but it fell forward no matter what he did. If Pegasus thought Seto and Mokuba looked alike now, it would only become more obvious the longer his hair grew.

Mokuba's hair still dripped when he opened the door. Pegasus hadn't brought down an extra towel for him, but Seto didn't mind sharing his. Mokuba rubbed it over his head, spending small, frizzy strands up toward the ceiling. There weren't as many as Seto remembered. The majority must have grown out.

"You just read all day?" Mokuba asked.

"Usually. That's all I really have to do."

"You've got a notebook."

Mokuba walked over to it and lifted the cover, flipping through the pages. He chuckled over the glass cutter and ran a finger over the margins of the next page. "You and your note taking. Taking notes on stuff you draw from your head. And it's not even for work."

"Have you asked him about KaibaCorp?"

"Couple times," Mokuba said, sitting back down beside Seto. "When I wanted my locket back. A few times later when I wanted to know what we'd be doing down the road. You?"

"Periodically. He's brought me some stock reports and product designs. Then we worked together yesterday."

"How'd that go?"

"We had lunch outside."

"It's weird, isn't it? Going outside after all this? And I have a window and thought it was weird. Must've been even more weird for you."

"Maybe if you say weird one more time, it will stop sounding like a word."

"Come on. You know what I'm saying even if I'm saying it badly."

Seto nodded and stretched out his legs. He stared at his hands and was momentarily thankful that the half-hour in the sun hadn't been enough to burn him. The last thing he needed was for Pegasus to have reason to joke about him being pink.

"I've still just been out the once. Maybe it's a birthday thing?"

"Perhaps. You went down to the beach?"

Mokuba nodded and turned around to grab the blanket off the bed. Seto checked again for a fever with the back of his hand to Mokuba's cheek.

"Feeling cold?"

"Meds will kick it. It's not so bad. And hey, at least you don't have to work today."

"The world doesn't stop for birthdays," Seto said. "Unless apparently, you're trapped on an island."

"This room really is horrible."

Mokuba's gaze had turned to the glass wall, looking closer at the ceiling than out where Pegasus normally stood. "I have some cameras too," he said, pointing a finger at it from under the blanket. "But it doesn't stand out so much."

"He certainly wants me to remember it's there."

"Do you know if he watches it?"

Seto nodded. "Someone does. When my appendix was about to rupture, that's how I got his attention."

"So if I stuck out my tongue, he'd end up knowing about it at least?"

"You're fourteen years old," Seto said. "Isn't that a little old for sticking your tongue out?"

"If you can tell me you haven't flipped him off, I'll agree."

"Fine."

Mokuba stretched out his legs like Seto, tapping his toes together and popping his lips a few times. Like Seto, he didn't have shoes. "So what do we do all day? If we were upstairs, there'd be more to do."

"Tell me about it," Seto said.

"Well," Mokuba started. "You saw the video? Yeah? So all that's there. Your room's pretty cool. Pegasus hates the paint color I picked, which is half the reason I did. It's really dark, like almost navy. There's a bookshelf, but not a lot of books. He said I could pick ten from the library, so I did. It's pretty narrow? The room, not the bookshelf."

Mokuba stood and took a few steps back from Seto, head tilted to the side while he judged each step. "Like this big?" he guessed. He had stopped just short of the bookshelf, which meant Seto would be losing space when he was moved.

"But I think that our rooms used to be one and he just built a wall down the middle. The main area's bigger. But you saw that. My room's green. And we have a TV now."

"He can't get any channels out here."

"Not really, but he's got a lot of movies."

Seto cracked his fingers one at a time, hating how even with the heat turned on, the sound echoed off the walls. He hadn't gotten the music back from his slip ups the day before and that just made everything sound like a scream. Mokuba hadn't commented on it, but any time his voice raised above his normal volume, he dropped it back down.

"It'd be cool if he let you paint the walls in here. You could do some of your design sketches. That might be neat."

"I'd rather you painted them. I like the one in the hall."

"Yeah? I'm better than that, but I needed to hide the shapes."

"I still like it. It's coming with me when I move."

"You don't have to. It was just to get the message through."

"I love it, Mokuba. You're not talking me out of this one."

Mokuba dropped to the bed and shuffled forward until his head was beside Seto's. Seto angled so they could talk, the ten hours until dinner not feeling like nearly enough.

Mokuba wanted to know everything Seto had done and Seto wanted to know the same for Mokuba. They exchanged stories until Mokuba would think of something that made him ramble on for a while, only stopping when he realized that he was supposed to be asking Seto questions back. Mokuba's energy, dampened only a little by the cold, made the time pass too quickly.

They both froze when the speaker turned on that night.

"Another happy birthday to you, Kaiba-boy! Has it been a good one?"

"It's still his birthday," Mokuba said. "I thought your deal was for the full day."

" _A_  full day. It started last night."

The top of the ladder came into view and both Seto and Mokuba just stared at it. It was it then. They would have to split up again. Four months of waiting for a day together and it was over. Halloween couldn't count as a holiday Pegasus would allow them to celebrate together. It would be Thanksgiving, maybe Christmas. At least another month.

"You could do another day. It wouldn't hurt anything," Mokuba said.

"I've held up my end of the agreement, wouldn't you say, Kaiba?"

Mokuba turned to Seto, silently pleading while the duct rattled in the process of pulling it down.

Mokuba tried to argue more but got caught in a coughing fit. It went on too long, but Mokuba waved off Seto's offer for help and went into the bathroom where he had left a water bottle on the vanity. The coughs calmed by the time the duct was down and the ladder removed.

"Come on, Little Mokuba. You can't dawdle forever."

Mokuba came out of the bathroom a moment later with a tired glare. "I'm not dawdling. And that's a stupid word."

Pegasus gasped in mock offense. "Is not!"

"Do I really have to go?"

"That was our deal. I've upheld my end."

The wall began to raise. Mokuba cringed away from the sound for just a moment before rushing to the bed and hugging Seto until it was fully up. His pleas blended together, whispered into Seto's ear, too many pleases and helps to really understand any more than that.

"Let's go, chickadee!"

"Please, Seto?"

Mokuba pulled back to meet Seto's gaze. It was the sickness cracking his voice, but it caused Seto to bring him back in for another hug. Pegasus couldn't take Mokuba, not again.

"Pegasus-"

"Are you about to argue with me, Seto?"

"You haven't spent your time down here. You could give us longer."

With Pegasus present, but even so, it was more time than they could otherwise hope for.

"And in half an hour, we'll be back in this same situation. Come on, Mokuba."

Mokuba backed away, still staring at Seto like he could come up with a way to keep them out of Pegasus's games. There wasn't a way. Even begging had only worked the once, and Seto couldn't bring himself to do it again with Mokuba witness.

Seto stood and two of the guards drew their weapons. He didn't step forward and Pegasus signaled them down. Pegasus placed a hand on Mokuba's shoulder once he was within arm's reach.

"It's been long enough," Seto said. "I can't miss any more."

"You know I would be better company with Seto upstairs. You wouldn't spend the first half of the time trying to cheer me up. I'd already be all set."

Pegasus pulled Mokuba in a step closer. "Now boys-"

"You know I'm right! This would be better for you, and Seto's not going to try anything, right, Seto?"

"He knows what I'm not willing to risk," Seto said.

"See? You know, and it will be better for all of us. You don't have to separate us again."

"Mokuba, you've notic-" Pegasus started only for Mokuba to cut him off again, this time facing him, hand still on his shoulder.

"I can't do this anymore. Please. Don't make me go back up there alone. I don't know how I could really do better, but I'll do whatever I can. Just let Seto come with me. Pl-"

"Mokuba."

Pegasus's voice echoed sharp and forceful, shutting Mokuba's mouth in a moment. Seto wanted to intervene, but couldn't step forward with the guards still gripping their weapons.

"You'll notice the glass hasn't come back down," Pegasus said.


	41. Chapter 41

Mokuba glanced back like he hadn't noticed, then to Seto, then to Pegasus. He repeated the pattern once more while Seto's gaze never dropped from Pegasus's expression. He didn't mean it. He couldn't mean it.

"You're letting him out?" Mokuba asked.

"I am."

"Why?" Seto asked. He wouldn't believe it, not until he was out with the glass down behind him, maybe not even that. Even if he made it upstairs and spent weeks with Mokuba, he wouldn't believe Pegasus was finished with this room.

"I told you once I trusted you I would let you out. You proved I could."

Mokuba turned to Seto without moving away from Pegasus. "You did?"

Seto couldn't stop himself from shaking his head. "I did?"

"You didn't take the shot. Any of them. Are you coming?"

"Then why were we in here for his birthday?" Mokuba asked.

"Your brother is a tough nut to keep trapped. We wanted to double check the rooms while you were gone."

Seto didn't want to stall, but he stepped over to the bookshelf and collected the pictures of Mokuba, most importantly the picture from the locket, and then walked out. Just like that, he walked free of the room and no one lifted a gun in his direction.

"Mokuba, I need you to put your finger through my belt loop. On this side," Pegasus said. "And Seto, you stay back with the guards. If I catch you within three feet of me or Little Mokuba, we're coming back down."

Seto nodded while Mokuba slipped his finger through the belt loop. His nose wrinkled, but he didn't argue it. Arguing now would be foolish. Pegasus was letting Seto out.

"Did you want my glasses?" Seto offered.

"I'm supposed to be trusting you, right? Keep them on. Learn the layout of my castle. You were probably counting steps before anyway."

It was true, but Pegasus didn't wait on Seto to confirm or deny. He started for the elevator and Seto held back, leaving a greater distance than Pegasus had ordered. They would have to take separate elevators, so there was no rush other than the desire to put distance between himself and the glass room.

He was getting out.

Seto debated grabbing anything else, but aside from the pictures, everything was replaceable. Someone would have to come back down for the painting on the wall. If he had any say in the matter, he wouldn't be taking another step back inside that room, or even this hallway.

Bakura had been right, it seemed bigger from the outside, with the glass raised.

A guard nudged him forward once the elevator doors had closed, and Seto was eager to get back within sight of Mokuba. He doubted Pegasus would lie, maybe to him, but not to Mokuba. But being separated so soon after the promise of moving in together made his hands twitch. It would be better once they were up in their room.

None of the guards spoke to him, but Seto figured if Pegasus planned to keep them on the island for a lifetime, he would have to get names at some point. Or Pegasus wouldn't want to risk the guards bonding with any of the seven to keep them from changing allegiances. It wouldn't be easy for Seto to win someone over. But Mokuba? Muto? Bakura on his good days? They could manage it.

Pegasus and Mokuba waited in the hallway where the elevator opened. Mokuba's heavy exhale was visible in his deflating chest, and Pegasus seemed bored everywhere but his fingers, tapping against his side.

"I should invest in faster elevators."

"I'm surprised you don't have a whole roller coaster system in place," Mokuba said.

After a short scoff, Pegasus said, "That would be ridic—no. You're right. That would be spectacular. Can you imagine it? I'll have to get Croquet to look into it."

"You're not installing a roller coaster," Seto said. Standing in the hallway gave Pegasus more time to renege his offer, to think too hard on what it meant for Seto to actually be out of the room. They couldn't stay in the hallway to discuss elevators any longer.

"Spoilsport."

But it got the message across and Pegasus led them down two halls until the second one deadended at a door with a keypad beside it and three locks on the exterior side. Pegasus undid them all, telling Mokuba to step back so he couldn't see the pin code.

The door to Seto's new prison opened. It was an actual door, one that would open daily as Pegasus came and went. And Mokuba would be inside with him, no barriers in between. Even if there were cameras—Seto spotted two after just one step inside—Pegasus had given them more space. Seto could tell there were angles uncovered. He had more options than before.

"Welcome home, Kaiba-boy!"

Making sure to stay clear of Pegasus, Seto hung back when he stopped walking. The entrance to their space was a short hallway, two doors on the left and one on the right. Pegasus named each of them. "Your room, Little Mokuba's den, bathroom."

Mokuba slipped back to grab onto Seto. The guards tailing them hung back by the door. Another test, most likely. There still wasn't a way out, even with Mokuba at his side. He would take the first actual chance given, not these faked setups.

"Living room and kitchen- brothers Kaiba? You're slowing down."

They caught up.

"I restocked your kitchen today. And the paints too. You are eternally low on green."

"I like trees," Mokuba said. "Sue me."

The living area connected with the kitchenette, both small, but the total space about twice what Seto had in the glass room. Mokuba's art supplies were set up in a corner by a window, behind one of the two couches and across from the television he mentioned. It all seemed as if Mokuba decorated, more modern furniture than Pegasus would have picked, flatter colors, minimal artwork.

"Sorry for interrupting your reverie," Pegasus said. "I can see that your mind is abuzz with contemplation, but some of that needs to be spoken. How am I supposed to know what you think if you are so stoic?"

"Aren't I usually stoic?" Seto asked while scoping out the cameras mounted up on the ceiling.

"Well yes. But if you'd like to make any changes, you'll have to speak up."

"When have I not spoken up when I don't like something?"

"Have a seat, you two."

Seto and Mokuba took one of the couches and Pegasus sat on the one opposite of them. He crossed a leg and stretched his arms across the back of the couch.

"We should lay some ground rules."

"I don't have any rules," Mokuba said. "Why should Seto?"

"Because Seto is more troublesome than you are."

"Just give them to me."

"First," Pegasus said, drawing out the syllable as if he was coming up with the rules on the spot, "-if at any time I ask you to reach toward me and you can touch me, you're going back downstairs. I don't know how long your arms are, but that's how far you have to keep away."

"Fine."

It meant Pegasus couldn't touch him as well, so the rule didn't bother him. It could be worked around if Seto ended up needing to lift a weapon from him.

"Second, you two can combine your breakfast time together. Still ten minutes, but the three of us will share the time. For dinner, however, we're splitting up. If it's not your turn, you'll stay in your room."

"Okay," Mokuba said.

"Third, well, don't count this one yet. I'm still working out the details. But on the weekends, I might just pop in and out. It's impractical to keep up my same schedule, but I haven't decided how to readjust. So, be ready for me on the weekends."

Seto expected more stringent rules, so the three listed didn't seem too hard to uphold. They felt more like requests with the calm tone they had been phrased in. But Pegasus might have done that intentionally, looking for Seto to find wiggle room in his commands, looking for a reason to move him back downstairs.

He wouldn't get one.

"You never answered me, Kaiba. Thoughts?"

Seto gave the room another glance, mostly for show, but he locked onto a coffee maker on the kitchen counter.

"You stocked coffee?"

"I did. You drinking it again?"

"I might."

"I thought at much. I haven't been leaving any in here for Little Mokuba. Didn't want to stunt his growth, because let's all be honest with each other. I think we all want to see who ends up being taller."

"Coffee's gross," Mokuba said. "And I look like mom, so Seto's probably taller for life."

"That's wonderful news. Could you imagine being taller than me? That would make it very difficult on my end," Pegasus said.

Mokuba bit his lip over a smile when he glanced up at Seto. "I should get taller than him," he said, using his eyes to point to Pegasus. "That'd be hilarious."

"It most certainly would not," Pegasus said.

"A little each way," Seto said. It would be amusing to see Mokuba end up taller than Pegasus, but not at the expense of him looking down on Seto.

"I'll have Croquet bring up your things," Pegasus said. "There are more clothes in your bedroom, more books and the like. Oh, another rule, razor stays in the bathroom while I'm here."

"You think I'm going to attack you with a razor," Seto said.

"No, but one can never be too careful with you, Kaiba-boy."

"I'd say eight months in a glass box was too careful."

"I wouldn't. Now then, Mokuba, you'll need to show your brother where everything is. It's dinner time, so you should probably get something going for him. He and I will chat in his bedroom for a moment."

Mokuba took the hint and shuffled over to the kitchen. Seto and Pegasus both stood, and Pegasus gestured for Seto to walk ahead of him to the room that had been designated at his.

The walls were the near-navy Mokuba described, a twin bed in one corner, a small side table under the window, dresser at the foot of the bed, and a bookshelf across from it. It was the same layout as his old room, only narrower. Mokuba's paintings decorated the walls everywhere they would fit, and it reminded Seto, "His painting is downstairs."

"Croquet will bring it. Sit."

Seto did, taking a seat by the head of the bed so he was the specified distance from Pegasus. Pegasus remained standing, hands in his pant pockets and a subtle lift on his lips.

"You're already plotting."

"I haven't started."

"How many locks are on the door?" Pegasus asked.

"Three and a keypad."

"Cameras?"

"Three out there, one in here, and I assume one in Mokuba's room."

"You were saying?"

"That's taking inventory. No actual plotting has begun," Seto said. "You've just moved me with Mokuba. I'm not screwing this up so soon."

"You will eventually."

"I'm not planning to. I told you. You win."

Upholding the lies without the glass wall became harder the moment Seto tried. The goal before had been clear—get to Mokuba. Now that he was here, he would have to reevaluate, come up with a better next step than just escaping. He didn't know what his lies needed to work toward, other than clinging to the feeble trust Pegasus already seemed ready to snap.

His lies felt false even to him without the wall between them.

"I'm giving you as many warnings as I can. Do not test me."

"This lecture would make a lot more sense if I had actually tried something."

"You are going to try something."

"Probably," Seto said, keeping his voice dismissive. "But you know me fairly well after all this time. I enjoy testing boundaries."

"Don't. It was eight months this time. I'll double it the next. And if there is another attempt at anything after that, I'll double it again. Are we clear?"

"You've got me. I'm here. No one is trying to escape."

"We'll see."

Pegasus glanced back to the door, then up to the camera aimed down to Seto's bed. "You can reach this one. Don't touch it."

"I won't," Seto said, and this time the exasperation crept through. "Even if you didn't demote me, you could just walk in and replace it. It would be pointless."

"Very well. Keep on your best behavior and we won't have a problem. And I'm sure Little Mokuba would like to celebrate the remainder of your birthday. Don't let him make you muffins. Take my word for it."

Seto nodded and stood, but had to wait on Pegasus before he could walk out. Pegasus loitered in his path for a moment as if appraising Seto's response. Maybe fifteen seconds passed before he opened the door and walked back out into the living room. Mokuba turned to look back at them from the coffee maker.

"Thought you might want some," he said.

"Thank you."

"And you show him gratitude so easily," Pegasus muttered, then, "I'm heading out. I'll be by in the morning."

"Will your time change now that Seto's here?"

"I'll move our Ryou before you two, to Seto's time. Expect me around seven-forty or so."

Mokuba nodded and went back to measuring out coffee grounds. He used a finger to level off the scoop and Seto watched in awe at how tall he had gotten. He had to bend over the counter rather than stand up on his toes. He couldn't have grown so much in eight months. Seto must have been remembering what he had looked like before wrong.

"Good night, Kaiba brothers."

Pegasus backed out of the room and Seto listened to each of the locks, along with the buzz from the electric one. One of the cameras pointed straight to the entrance, so he wouldn't be able to get a closer look at it without Pegasus being informed.

Mokuba spun around and barreled into Seto's chest, hugging him again.

"I didn't think he would let you come and I thought I was going to have to be in here alone again and I can't believe he let you move up here and you're here, Seto. You're finally here."

Seto returned the hug before Mokuba had gotten out three words. He was verbalizing everything Seto would never be able to say and the best Seto could manage was to nod against the top of Mokuba's head.

When had Mokuba gotten so tall?

"Don't let him take you away again, Seto. Please. I couldn't-"

"Hey. Look at me."

Seto leaned back and put a hand on Mokuba's shoulders. "I'm not going anywhere. We'll figure this out, but we'll play it smart. Okay?"

Mokuba nodded. "You promise?"

"I promise. But more seriously, how often does he have to get you new clothes? You must have grown at least half a foot since March."

"No way. Maybe two inches."

"At least four. Look," Seto said, standing up straight to compare his height Mokuba's. "You hardly touched my elbow."

"Two years ago!" Mokuba turned to cough, and once done, said, "Let's just get something for dinner, okay? You can complain about me getting taller than you tomorrow."

"You're not getting taller than me."

Mokuba grinned. "We'll see."

Croquet brought up Seto's things a while later, but the painting would have to be hung the next day, or whenever Pegasus trusted Seto with a hammer and nail. It wasn't too much of a problem. Seto left it propped against the empty stretch of wall by his bookshelf, just below where the painting would end up mounted, and stared at it while trying to fall asleep.

He didn't have to keep his light on, but he did. Retraining himself to sleep with it off shouldn't take long, and it had to be easier than learning to sleep with the light on, but tonight, he would. When he woke, the first thing he needed to see was the lack of a glass wall. The color on the walls. The window. The door.

He would wake up and have more to do than wait on Pegasus. He could peek in on Mokuba, stare out a window, fix his own breakfast, turn on a movie.

Mokuba slept in the next room and if Seto wanted to see him he only needed to walk over.

The first of the battles was completed.

And somehow, it seemed far less of a victory than expected.

Seto rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling, painted navy like the rest of the room. Mokuba insisted he would end up painting on the ceiling—"I'll get a scaffold and paint on my back!"—but that would likely be a ways off. Until then, even then, Seto could stare at it because it wasn't white.

The fear was a new sensation, or at least one he hadn't felt in a long while. Pegasus taking all this away from him now would be more devastating than having been kept in that room. He was more trapped here than he was below. His own emotions contained him. Pegasus merely needed to be there and Seto would fall into line.

He rubbed a hand over his face. It wasn't supposed to have gone this way. Getting out of the room, getting to Mokuba, had always been step one. Now it felt like there were a hundred more steps out in front of him, too steep to climb. Any miscalculation would send him all the way back down.

And that terrified him.

All of the lies he had told Pegasus to be moved were becoming reality. Pegasus did have more control up here. Seto would have to be more careful. He would give Pegasus what he wanted because it meant keeping what Seto wanted.

A knock on his door shattered his contemplation.

"You can just walk in."

Mokuba peeked inside. "I've always knocked."

"Yes, Mokuba?"

"Can I sleep in here?"

Seto nodded and sat up, propping his arms behind him. "Want me to move to the floor?"

"No. Sorry. I know I'm too old for this."

"Not hardly," Seto said. He made room for Mokuba to join him on the bed, scooting as close to the wall as he could to give Mokuba space. The bed gave them room to lie on their backs, shoulder to shoulder, but with no extra space around them.

"Didn't want to wake up in a panic that you were back downstairs."

"I'll make sure it doesn't happen."

"Good. I can't keep doing this on my own."

"We'll be careful," Seto said. He reached down and took Mokuba's hand, wrapping his own around it. "And we'll get through this."


	42. Chapter 42

"I give you your own rooms and you still sleep in the same bed?"

Seto reached across Mokuba for his glasses, knocking into Mokuba's face and startling him out of sleep. He flinched and tried to push Seto's arm out of his way, nearly forcing the glasses out of Seto's dazed grip as he rolled away from Seto to cough.

"Aren't you two the picture of coordination this morning?"

After putting on his glasses, Seto glanced out the window. It was morning. He had slept the entire night.

"We overslept," Mokuba said. He sat up and ran his hands over his hair to smooth down the jutting pieces. His left hand felt around his wrist and came up with a ponytail holder that had left a dark imprint behind. He tied back his hair before getting to his feet.

"Sorry," he said, looking around the room. "It's not like we stayed up late."

"Well chop, chop! We have eight minutes and forty…three seconds remaining."

Seto followed Mokuba out of bed, hanging back until Pegasus left his room. He took one of the couches so Seto was free to head for the coffee maker. It had a program function he would have to make use of for the following morning. Maybe the smell of it would wake him. Having Pegasus do that for him couldn't happen again.

"You two seem to have fallen right back into old routines."

"We didn't sleep together before," Mokuba said. He joined Seto in the kitchen, bending down to grab a pan from a lower cabinet. He reached forward to turn on the burner before whispering a sharp, "Oh!" and turning to the sink to wash his hands. Seto watched him for a moment. Distractions eased the conversations with Pegasus. The chess set had hardly been a buffer, but cooking would be better. Mokuba seemed to have figured that out.

"Of course you didn't. Although if I had known you would share a room, I wouldn't have paid for the wall."

"We will need our own rooms," Mokuba said. "Does it bother you that I slept in Seto's room?"

"I'm just teasing, Little Mokuba. There's no need for the tension. And Kaiba?"

Seto glanced back over his shoulder.

"Speak up."

"Did you want coffee?" Seto said. He knew the answer would be no and didn't scoop out any more of the grounds.

"Such a generous offer. And here I was thinking you'd given it up."

Seto smirked at the tone. "Are you asking me to?"

"Just making observation."

Mokuba groaned and pulled a carton of eggs out of the fridge. "Do you two always talk so cryptically? It's going to get old."

"Who's being cryptic?" Pegasus asked. His tone had risen to one more pleasant. "I'm being very clear with your-Seto-not-my-Seto."

"You're seriously doing it again not three seconds later," Mokuba said.

"The coffee is just coffee," Seto said, giving Pegasus back his attention long enough to make sure the point went through. It had meant something else before, but now Seto just wanted coffee again.

"We'll see," Pegasus said. He waved Seto on to continue brewing the pot while Mokuba scrambled five of the eggs. While they cooked, he opened a bag of bread and put two slices in the toaster. Both hands moved to his face to cover his nose as he sneezed, and Mokuba used the back of a hand to turn on the water again, scrubbing his hands before returning to breakfast.

"And Mokuba, I did promise you could decorate for Halloween. Are you still thinking you want to?"

Mokuba shrugged. "I dunno. Seems a little silly."

"Silly? Celebrating a holiday is never silly, Little Mokuba. The only silly thing would be to allow yourself to think that way."

"Well, it's not like I can dress up."

"Then we can dress up the room. What do you think, Kaiba-boy? Saturday?"

"If that's what you want," Seto said to Mokuba. He didn't want his room covered in gaudy decorations, but the rest of their space was fair game. And setting things up on Saturday meant more of a buffer on the conversation.

"Then maybe," Mokuba said. "No cobwebs."

Mokuba had shown Seto around the kitchen the night before, so Seto opened the cabinet with the mugs and poured his first cup of coffee of the day. There would be more.

"I haven't forgotten. Although it is looking a little dusty in here. When's the last time you cleaned?"

"It is not! I cleaned like, probably a week ago."

The toaster dinged and Mokuba dropped a piece on each of the plates he had set out with a quiet, "Butter's in the fridge."

"Shall we check the cameras? I'd say at least a month."

"I've hardly been in here a month. I've cleaned so much. You don't even know."

The eggs followed the toast on the plate and Mokuba pulled open a drawer to grab forks. He handed Seto a plate before walking over to the couch.

Seto checked the distance first. Sitting, he would be out of Pegasus's reach. So he took the spot beside Mokuba and sipped at his coffee.

"You two have plans for the day?" Pegasus asked. He extended a hand to Seto, fingertips at least two feet away, but the gesture held more weight. He would be checking just as much as Seto.

"Figure out where everything is," Seto said because he hadn't spoken in a while. Pegasus lowered his hand.

"Help him with that I guess."

"And?" Pegasus said, dragging out the word a moment too long.

"And clean a little," Mokuba added.

"Do you paint, Kaiba? I've never asked."

"I don't."

"He must have picked up his knack for it somewhere."

"Wasn't here."

"You looked like you were sketching in that notebook."

Seto shrugged and took a sip of his coffee. "You asked about painting "

"Ugh," Pegasus scoffed, pushing his hair back over his shoulder with an additional huff. "Honestly, you and your wordplay. Shall I specify all artistic mediums, or will you answer what I'm really asking?"

"I draw fairly well. Not as a hobby."

Pegasus pressed his hands to his knees before standing. "That's my time. Same things with the cameras, Kaiba-boy. Wave if you need something. There are guards in the hall too, so you could knock on the door, but they don't have the keys to get in."

"What night is Seto's for dinner?"

"Thursday, tomorrow."

"Are we cooking or you?"

"Well now that I've heard about a certain someone's cooking ability, I'd like to see what he comes up with."

"If I made a grocery list," Seto said, "Would you fill it?"

Pegasus stepped over to the door and said over his shoulder, "I would do my best. Good day, you two."

Seto finished his coffee and didn't let himself look at the door. There were more cameras staring than he had gotten used to. The angles were different. It felt like a new set of eyes watching. He would have to relearn where they watched.

"I'm so excited you're here."

"If I wasn't, what do you think you'd end up doing?"

"Uh," Mokuba said, taking another bite and glancing behind him like he would find an answer. "You'd think I'd of come up with a routine. Wash the dishes. I guess I'll have to clean since he commented on it. Oh, I do watch a movie every day. I rotate through the stack."

"The stack?"

"I have six movies, so I just rotate through them."

Seto nodded and picked at his breakfast. He never ate much when he had the option, but Mokuba had made it for him. And now that there was a kitchen available to him, Seto could eat when he wanted to. There wasn't a need to hoard food or to finish the plate so the smell didn't linger during the day. It shouldn't have been such an odd thought.

"What movie is on the rotation for today?"

"Edward Scissorhands. Pegasus really likes this one."

Seto had enough of his breakfast and carried it over to the sink, turning on the tap before the garbage disposal. He ran through the setup of the castle, looking for any structural detail that might aid him in getting out. Pegasus must have been prepared for anything to happen to the plumbing and electrical. With the storms that must have come through, he would keep someone on staff who could handle any malfunctions or damages. And even if he did have to bring someone from the mainland, they were hidden away. It wouldn't work no matter what effort Seto put into destroying the castle.

"Have you seen it?"

Seto glanced back at Mokuba. "I haven't."

"I bet you haven't seen half of these, maybe more. They'll be new for you and that will make them more interesting for me, at least for a while."

"Glad to hear it."

The kitchenette didn't have a dishwasher, so Seto searched for dish soap and grabbed the sponge. Mokuba walked up beside him and bumped their hips together to make room.

"I was starting to think this wouldn't happen," Mokuba said. While Seto scrubbed his plate, Mokuba rinsed his.

"Me too."

"So you don't think we can trust him?"

"I don't think we have a choice. Trusting him or not won't make much of a difference."

"But what we say about trusting him does," Mokuba said, flatly, as if asking for clarification.

"Right."

"So we're supposed to play along with this? To agree that we killed her?"

"You shouldn't. It's absurd that he blames you for it at all."

Seto moved on to his mug while Mokuba set his plate down to wait on his turn with the sponge. "I didn't give him the KaibaCorp codes."

"You were ten. It doesn't count."

"Uh, you were sixteen. Why does that count any more than ten?"

"It was my company. I told you not to give out the codes."

"That's trivial," Mokuba said. He pushed Seto out of the way when he finished rinsing the mug and got started on his own plate, and once done with that, reached for the pan on the stove top.

Seto stood back to give him the space he needed, scanning the room once again in hopes that he would have already gotten used to the space, to being out of that room. But he hadn't. The window alone proved startling, and Seto pushed off the counter he leaned back against to cross the room and look out. It faced east like Pegasus had mentioned, and Seto squinted into the morning light across the forest below.

How had he considered this getting out?

"Hey Seto?"

"Yes?"

"What do you think about talking to him about forgiveness?"

"About him forgiving us?"

Seto had to look back to gauge Mokuba's facial expression to understand the point he was really trying to get across. He had finished with the dishes and set them on a towel to dry, but rubbed his hands against his shirt to dry them. His lips were tight in a corner in thought.

"Like, just see where he stands on it. I mean, didn't we all sort of forgive him for Duelist Kingdom? Not entirely, you know, but like, you did business with him. I spoke to him at some events. I think Yugi and the others all decided he was redeemed or something. If we could forgive him, then he should be able-"

"It doesn't work that way."

"How do you know?"

Seto walked back to the couch and sat down, patting the cushion beside him until Mokuba rolled his eyes and sat down as well. They both turned to face each other, a leg bent on the cushion and the other over the edge. Seto put an elbow on the back of the couch and rested his head on a knuckle.

"Best I can tell, having us here is what he thinks makes things right. He doesn't like that wording, but it's what he's saying."

"But I don't get that," Mokuba said. "If someone killed you, I'd make sure they died. I wouldn't keep them as pets."

"Don't say that."

"What? That'd I'd kill for you? No point in hiding it. Not like it's going to happen."

Seto shook his head. "You shouldn't get yourself killed trying to avenge me."

"Please. I can carry out a simple vengeance plot without getting myself killed."

"Do you think anyone who managed to kill me would be simple to enact vengeance upon?"

"I missed you," Mokuba said with a small laugh.

"I missed you too."

Mokuba let the side of his head fall to the back of the couch before he turned his face down. "I don't want to clean."

"Do you have scissors?"

Mokuba peeked up. "Will that help with the cleaning?"

"No. I want to cut my hair."

Seto didn't move as Mokuba got to his feet, faking annoyance. "I thought you had some secret to cleaning! But scissors are over with my paints. You do need it cut."

Seto stood as well and walked to the corner of the room where the easel was set up. A box on the floor seemed to hold most of the painting supplies, so Seto knelt to rifle through them while Mokuba brought cleaning supplies out from under the sink. It almost felt normal. If Seto ignored the cameras and the locked doors, then this could have been most Sunday afternoons.

It shouldn't have felt normal. They were prisoners. They should have felt the constant pressure of the walls.

Seto found the scissors and carried them into the bathroom. He had never cut his own hair before, but anything had to be better than the shaggy mess hanging in front of his eyes. He trimmed carefully, half an inch at a time until it looked about how he remembered wearing it. There wasn't any way for him to see the back, and he didn't trust Mokuba with it, so Seto cut it blindly.

Even if he didn't make it look professionally cut, he looked more like himself than he was used to seeing. If he could have seen his reflection without his glasses, he would have taken them off for the full effect.

"I'm not cleaning up that hair," Mokuba said from the doorway. He leaned to his left to look around Seto to the reflection. "You look more like you."

"That's the idea."

"But seriously with the hair."

"I've got it."

Mokuba nodded and gave Seto a final glance before taking the rag and spray bottle he had been carrying into his bedroom across the hall. Seto kept messing with his bangs, cutting off a few stray pieces every so often. He thought about cutting them shorter than he had before since they still were in the way of his glasses, and on the chance Pegasus changed his mind and moved him back downstairs, he would have longer before it became unruly again.

He decided against it and swept up the hair he had just cut, dumping it into the garbage can. He still wasn't even used to having a garbage can.

How had Pegasus gotten him to the point of gratitude for a garbage can? Pegasus looked like he was breaking more and more with each encounter, but who was it really breaking? Maybe Seto saw it that way because he was the one actually changing. Maybe Pegasus's antics didn't bother him as much as they had in the beginning.

He got out of the first prison.

It was time to get out of the next.

The door locked from the outside and guards were stationed in the halls. Escaping would mean more than getting out of this room.

He needed access to the castle as a whole.

Step one— _Get to Mokuba_ —had been completed.

Step two had to be getting the locks off the door.


	43. Chapter 43

Seto pushed aside a dangling cutout of a skeleton that Pegasus thought would be funny to hang directly outside his bedroom door. One more day and he could rip it down. All of the decorations could come down in … four hours and seventeen minutes.

Mokuba drew his attention from the clock on the wall and to the kitchen.

"Counting down to the horror fest?" he asked.

"To taking down these-" Seto paused to gesture to a pumpkin-shaped bowl on the table. "-tacky absurdities."

"You know there's going to be turkeys and stuff everywhere in like a month."

Mokuba tossed the empty bag from the carrots he had been snacking on into the garbage. They agreed to eat dinner after Pegasus left since he had been tightlipped about exactly how Halloween would be spent. It might involve too much candy to eat along with a full dinner.

At least they made it out without costumes.

Pegasus entered at seven forty-four, fully attired in an overly elaborate, ruffled pirate costume. He didn't carry a sword—most likely so Seto wouldn't have access to an actual weapon—but he had a parrot on his shoulder.

A parrot.

"You're insane," Seto said. The rest of the costume, the large hat with a feather in the buckle, the frilled jacket, the shining boots, all seemed less important than the bird on his shoulder.

"Eccentric. And this is Clementine. She's a rescue. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten any speech from her."

"If that bird makes a mess in here," Mokuba said, "You're cleaning it."

"She's trained. You don't think I'd wear a savage bird around, do you?"

"It's a fucking bird," Seto said.

"Language rules still apply up here, Kaiba. I'll find something to dock from you."

Pegasus clasped his hands together and turned back to the doorway, where Croquet stood holding a large bowl. "Mokuba, go hide in your room."

"What? Why?"

"Because I said to, spoilsport. Go on now."

Mokuba rolled his eyes but did as instructed, taking a wide step around Pegasus and Clementine. Pegasus watched until the door closed and then gestured for Croquet to come inside, put the bowl on the table, and leave.

"He can't trick or treat, but we can hide candy for him to find."

"You're wearing a bird."

"You like her."

Seto couldn't stop staring at the bird. He didn't know if Pegasus had brought it in just for the costume or if the costume had come after the rescue. Whatever it was, Pegasus had a bird. On his shoulder. And didn't seem to think anything about it was off.

"You're wearing a bird."

"Well Clementine, I think Kaiba-boy here's more of a parrot than you are. We don't have long to hide the candies."

Seto couldn't step forward with Pegasus beside the candy bowl, but had to wait until he had taken a handful and moved a few feet away.

Staying out of Pegasus's reach had proved more difficult than Seto expected it to be. Their rooms weren't all that big and Pegasus stood so close to Seto and Mokuba. Maybe it was a test, maybe he was oblivious, or maybe he just thought it was funny.

"Mokuba's too old for this."

"His sweet tooth might tell you otherwise. Hurry along. I don't have more than the normal half hour."

Seto picked through the candy, looking for ones he knew Mokuba would like more. He didn't take many. Mokuba did not need this much candy, even over the course of a few weeks.

"Even you must realize this is excessive," Seto said, moving to Mokuba's painting supplies to hide the candy there.

Pegasus worked around the couches, stuffing the candy between the cushions. "If we hide them well, then Little Mokuba can uncover them for weeks to come. Forget trick or treating for a day. How about a month?"

"We'll lose some and they will rot."

"Candy doesn't rot. Don't be silly."

Seto set a piece on the easel and then on the windowsill. "Did you do this for everyone?"

"Everyone else doesn't have half an hour. Think about it this way, at least we don't have to do one-on-one time tonight."

"That's true."

Pegasus chuckled and laid a chocolate bar on the coffee table, glancing back at Seto to say, "He needs a few easy ones."

They hid the rest of the pieces, Pegasus hiding triple the amount that Seto did, and then Pegasus knocked on Mokuba's door—the movement making Clementine spread her wings, but thankfully stay on his shoulder—and opened it before Mokuba could.

"Come out, little frog! I have a mission for you!"

Mokuba gave the bird a wide berth again and walked slowly into the living room.

"What?"

"A scavenger hunt! Search for the candy. Here, a bowl to hold it all. Go!"

Pegasus shoved the bowl from the table into Mokuba's hands, and he glanced at Seto with eyebrows raised. "This is dumb."

"This is Halloween."

Pegasus hummed under his breath and gave Mokuba a little nudge. He didn't need it. His feet were already carrying him away from the parrot. Seto couldn't remember having seen Mokuba around any birds before and he was thinking there was a reason for that.

"You want me to hunt for candy like Easter eggs?"

"Oh! We can do this again for Easter! Painting eggs! I'd say we could have a contest but we all know I'd win it. Maybe just you two?"

"I'm too old for this."

Pegasus groaned and when his shoulder fell, Clementine adjusted her position, and Mokuba took another step back.

"You are fourteen! Just because your last name happens to mean something doesn't make you too old to search this room for candy!"

Mokuba plucked the candy bar from the coffee table and dropped it into his bowl. He gave the room a tired glance and then a hesitant one to Clementine before making his way around slowly, stopping once when he came across a blow-pop and unwrapping it.

"I really am too old for this," Mokuba said, talking around the candy in his mouth, which combined with the breaking in his voice, both from the fading illness and changing voice, was almost impossible to understand. Seto picked up on his meaning from years of experience reading his expressions and discerning the patterns of his tones.

Seto didn't know how Pegasus understood it except for possible inference.

"That'd sound a lot more plausible without the sucker in your mouth. You know, Kaiba-boy, with our Ryou's appearance in your life, I never did hear about your life at Mokuba's age."

"I studied. There wasn't time more much else," Seto said, watching Mokuba kick a pillow on the floor.

"You must have done something else."

"I came up with the prototype for SolidVision around that time. Application of what I was studying?"

"That sounds like the same thing you did at thirteen, and most of twelve, now that I'm thinking on it."

"I didn't do much those three years. Study. Make things. Overthrow a couple companies."

Clementine squawked and Mokuba flinched, checked that she hadn't moved, and went back to his half-hearted search. Seto crossed his arms and stared after Mokuba. This bird-phobia was new. It might not have been a full phobia, but Mokuba was at least hesitant around them and that was enough to draw Seto's attention.

"Did you have the pet bird or did you rescue her for the costume?" Seto asked.

"I've had Clementine for a while now. It's why she's so comfortable on my shoulder."

Pegasus turned to brush a finger over Clementine's breast, then said, "And you're changing the subject. I told you I'd start changing on."

"That one wasn't my subtlest," Seto said. Talking about a bird had to be more interesting than what maths and sciences he studied.

"Well?"

"I studied all subjects. Maybe not at fourteen, but around then." Seto paused and tilted his head to the side. "All the subjects relating to my field."

"Most fourteen year olds don't have a field."

"Most fourteen year olds aren't raised by a Kaiba."

"Can I be done with this?" Mokuba asked. The bowl was hardly filled.

"You're just going to search while I'm gone. You might as well look fervently now."

Mokuba didn't put any more effort into his search, but carried on, lifting things and kicking boxes out of his way.

"Are you grateful for the education?" Pegasus asked.

"It proved useful."

"You are the most cryptic conversationalist I have ever met. Is it impossible for you to simply say what's on your mind?"

"Maybe what's on my mind is cryptic."

Mokuba glanced to Seto for help, and he pointed his gaze over toward the easel. Mokuba hadn't cleared that area of the room yet, and Seto hadn't hidden them well. They would be searching for the candies for weeks. Seto should have paid attention to where Pegasus hid them all.

"Are you two always this boring during a holiday? Christmas will be such a letdown."

"This is just weird 'cause I'm old," Mokuba said. He pulled the sucker from his mouth and coughed.

"Will you stop saying that? You're making me feel like your grandfather! I'm twice your age but you'd think you were twice mine for the way you talk."

"How come you can act so normal?" Mokuba said. Seto shook his head but Mokuba ignored him.

_Not on a holiday._

_Don't start this today._

"While you're being a downer? Years of practice and a bright spirit."

"When you blame us for what happened. Saying we are guilty is one thing, but you're not treating us like we are."

"Would you like me to treat you like you deserve, Mokuba?"

"What do I deserve?"

Seto stepped forward but Pegasus held out a hand. They weren't close enough for the hand to stop him, but the gesture was enough. Pegasus's calm quiet was a different emotion than Seto was used to. Maybe he wouldn't lash out if Seto wasn't involved. He was close enough to jump in should Mokuba need it.

It was too soon after moving upstairs for this sort of discussion.

"What do I deserve?" Mokuba repeated. "For being ten and keeping you from KaibaCorp? Do I deserve to die?"

The room went quiet until Mokuba set the bowl down on the stool by the easel. He rubbed his lips together and Seto forced himself to look away from Mokuba and to Pegasus, standing motionless, arms crossed, and frowning at Mokuba.

"Do you want to die?"

"That's not my question."

"Do you believe I'm under obligation to answer any of your questions?"

"No," Mokuba said. "But you still aren't answering."

"And I'm not going to. I've been around you two long enough to know when you're trying to lead me into a corner. We'll have no corners here. Just circles."

Mokuba trailed a finger along the edge of the bowl. The hand with the sucker had fallen down to his side, hovering beside his leg so he didn't accidentally tough them together. Seto could see his lips working like he wanted to argue. He needed to let it go before it spiraled out of his control, but Seto couldn't say a word without angering Pegasus.

"I can't lose Seto," Mokuba said, finger still circling the bowl. "And he can't lose me."

A smile covered Pegasus's face. "Is that all you're worried about? I hope that the need for separation is over. No more splitting up my favorite team."

"You promise?"

"The promise goes both ways. You two behave and this is how things will be."

He had managed to turn the conversation around, taking it from the subject of his outlook toward them and making it about separating Seto and Mokuba. It was a good distraction, one that Mokuba likely saw through but couldn't continue to argue.

"Are you done looking for candy? I can always clear the room of what you don't want."

"I obviously want all of the candy."

"Does he seem obvious, Kaiba-boy? I'm not really seeing it."

And there was Seto's invitation back into their discussion.

He walked close to Mokuba, making up the distance he wanted from before, and covered it by revealing one of the hidden candies. Mokuba picked it up quickly before Pegasus could argue about Seto helping. He still protested it, but only once Mokuba already found the bag of sour candies.

"What was the point of hiding them if you were just going to help him find them?"

"I don't know why you wanted to hide them at all."

Mokuba stopped what he was doing and turned to Pegasus. "You're going to make such a big deal out of Easter, aren't you?"

"Of course I will! Candy, bunnies, scavenger hunts? Sounds delightful. Now if I could get Seto here to dress up as the Easter bun-"

"No."

"Not even if I bribe you?"

"There wouldn't be enough potential bribes in the world."

"Ah well," Pegasus said, giving some attention back to Clementine, who miraculously hadn't left his shoulder. "Maybe Croquet."

That easily, Pegasus moved on from Mokuba's question and returned to his normal, chipper state. He didn't seem to have forgotten it, since any time Mokuba looked away, Pegasus's frown flickered back. But he let the topic and nerves dissipate into nothing.


	44. Chapter 44

Seto turned his page and used the pause to check on Mokuba's painting. The easel was propped in front of the couch so they could sit beside each other, and Mokuba hadn't mentioned what he was working on, but it seemed to be something set around a lake.

"He should bring in some legos for you," Mokuba said, adding another stroke of green.

"Legos?"

"Yeah, so you've got something to build with."

Seto laughed and tried to focus on the first line of the new page. "And your solution is to have him bring me toys?"

"Just the one kind of toy. You could build a Blue-Eyes or something."

"I'm perfectly fine reading."

"Liar."

Mokuba stuck his tongue out a fraction while leaning in to get a better view of his painting. If he needed glasses, Pegasus would find a way. Seto would have to remember to ask about it, to see if someone could do an exam and call in a prescription.

"I'm offended you think I'd lie to you."

"Whatever you say, Kaibaman."

Seto snapped the book closed. "That wasn't my idea."

"Sure it wasn't."

Effectively distracted from reading, Seto stood and headed for the kitchen, to the waiting coffee left in the pot. He left his book on the table and traded it out for the mug. He yawned before filling it. As much as he loved Mokuba sleeping in his room, sharing the bed kept him awake. He kicked and talked in his sleep enough that Seto was lucky if he got in his normal five hours.

But Mokuba was there. He was safe.

"What're you thinking for dinner?"

"It's about time he restocked. We have leftovers."

Mokuba groaned and Seto heard the telltale click of his paintbrush against the easel letting him know Mokuba had gotten up as well. It was easier to pick out than his carpet-muffled footsteps. They were hardly any louder on the kitchen tiles. But he walked up beside Seto and put his forearms on the counter. "Let's cook something. I'm bored."

"You were just painting."

"Painting is boring."

"Don't tell that to Pegasus."

Mokuba tapped his fingers against the countertop. They were speckled with paint, mostly dried, but that seemed to be a normal thing for him now. For finding painting boring, Mokuba did it daily.

"You can see what we have. There's probably rice and some vegetables."

"Why can't he just keep cake mix stocked in here?"

"You know we have the ingredients to make one from scratch."

"What?"

"Cake isn't that complicated. I doubt there's anything for frosting-"

"Bake me a cake, Seto!"

"Eat the leftover candy."

"I ate the leftover candy."

Seto lowered his mug before taking the intended sip. "It's been two weeks. You ate all of the candy?"

"I have no self-control. Cake!"

"Make your own cake."

"I don't know how."

"And you think I do?"

Mokuba's face went flat and he rolled his eyes. "You know how to do everything. Get to it."

Seto scoffed. "You won't convince me so easily."

"I'll harass you for the rest of the day. You know me. I'll do it."

"That face doesn't work on me."

"Are you kidding? The reason I use this face is because it works on you."

Seto shook his head. "It's not working. I'm not baking a cake just for the sake of it. And you just want the frosting," Seto said, taking a sip of his coffee and opening the cabinet where the sugar was kept. "No powdered sugar means no frosting."

"Pegasus probably has some somewhere."

"Speaking of, doesn't he normally visit you in the mornings?"

Mokuba glanced to the door like it would explain Pegasus's absence. His gaze shifted to the clock over the oven next to him—10:21—before he shrugged. "He'd said he'd come and go."

"He's been consistent the last two weekends."

Another test? Busy schedule? Simply tired of the constant visits? Mokuba's morning visits hadn't been long, just enough for breakfast and a quick chat, but the only thing between it and Seto's hour and a half was Bakura. If Pegasus started at eight, skipping Mokuba, he certainly should have come by for the time set apart for Seto.

"What happens if he gets bored of us?" Mokuba asked.

"I don't know. We aren't here for his entertainment."

"We kind of are. Not much of a difference in providing him with company and just hanging out."

Seto looked to the door again. Pegasus couldn't get bored of them. It wasn't an option and it wasn't how he worked. If there was any inkling of boredom, Pegasus would create a twist to make things more interesting on his end. And it was still too soon after Seto moving out for him to have calmed from that. Being late today stemmed from a different issue. Maybe work. Maybe trouble with Bakura.

That had to be it.

"I'm guessing the Ring came back to Bakura."

"And that'd make him late?"

"Depends on the resistance he's getting from him."

Frowning, Mokuba rolled his shoulders back, tugging his hair out of the ponytail before braiding it messily behind him. "He's probably going to be in a bad mood then."

"Probably."

"We should do something to cheer him up."

"I'm not baking a cake."

"But-"

* * *

"Could I borrow a hairband?" Pegasus asked. He dropped to the couch and propped up his feet on the coffee table while Mokuba headed for the bathroom.

"Coffee?" Seto offered.

"Make the full pot. Strong as you can."

Seto got started and Mokuba returned with the hairband. Pegasus accepted it with a quiet word of thanks before knotting his hair off to the side so his missing eye was still covered.

"Long morning?" Seto asked.

"Extremely."

"Want to talk about it?" Mokuba said.

Pegasus shook his head, resting back against the couch with his chin lifted to the ceiling. "Your concern, as always, little frog, is appreciated."

Seto added and extra scoop of coffee grounds in the filter and turned it on. Pegasus requesting a full pot indicated a longer visit, or maybe it would just be waiting for him as he came and went all day.

"This may sound inappropriate," Mokuba said, sitting down on the couch opposite Pegasus, "But do you have powdered sugar here?"

"Don't give him the sugar," Seto said before Pegasus could answer.

"There's a story here I'm missing," Pegasus said.

"Seto won't make me a cake because we don't have anything to make frosting."

"I won't make you a cake because you ate all the candy in two weeks."

"You already ate it all?" Pegasus laughed. "It was three party bags."

"Two weeks is not that short of time to finish off a few party bags."

The coffee pot gurgled before brewing and Seto chose to stay in the kitchen until it had finished. He did turn to face Mokuba and Pegasus. Apparently any conversing he did with his back turned didn't actually count. He hadn't given it much thought while he was downstairs since there had been nothing on the bare white walls to give his attention to. But Pegasus expected courtesy as a minimum, and Seto had to oblige.

"How about we have a pie for Thanksgiving?" Pegasus said.

"That's like two weeks from now. I'll go through withdrawals."

"You wouldn't have them at all if you'd rationed out the candy," Seto said.

"Who wants to ration chocolate? Get real, Seto."

The coffee maker had brewed enough for a cup, so Seto grabbed a mug from the cabinet and filled it, replacing the pot to restart the flow. Pegasus's rule about distance meant Seto couldn't hand it to him, so he set it on the table and pushed it forward before sitting beside Mokuba.

Pegasus accepted it with a nod. He took a sip while it was still scalding and winced, but followed it up quickly with another.

"Bakura?" Seto asked.

"That obvious?"

"If you got me a cookbook, I could make my own cake," Mokuba said.

It really wasn't the best time for Mokuba to be changing the subject. The cake wasn't important and learning more about Bakura was. They had talked about this.

"I suspect Kaiba-boy might rip the pages out should I give it to you."

"Then you could just tell me the recipe. I have a good memory."

"Wouldn't you say I've come between you and your lovely brother enough? Hm? Let me know when you two come to a consensus."

Mokuba huffed but let the subject fall.

"I need a distraction. Scissorhands?"

* * *

Pegasus locked the door behind him, then the next lock, then the last. Seto hadn't stood, but stayed on the couch and nursed his coffee for a moment longer to make sure Pegasus had really left.

Mokuba spoke first.

"If you do that again I won't talk to you for a week."

Seto's eyebrows raised at the assertion. "Do what, exactly?"

"You know what. You just got here. Trying to get out now is going to end up sending you to the dungeon again. So stop it."

"You want to get out of here."

"Yeah, and you're going to ruin everything I've been building with him."

"You're going to get him to the point where he's not willing to discuss the others, or anything outside of this room."

Mokuba got to his feet and stepped in front of Seto, nudging his legs to either side to make room to walk up close. He leaned into Seto's face and pushed the coffee mug into Seto's lap. "You haven't been up here. It's different. It's way too soon for that, Seto."

"I think I know Pegasus a bit more than you."

Mokuba leaned in closer. "You don't."

He stepped back and retied his hair. The end credits cut off and went back to the title screen, so Mokuba busied himself putting the DVD back in the box. It kept his back to Seto which had to be intentional.

"You don't trust me," Seto said.

"I'm not risking you going back downstairs. Shape up."

* * *

"Your turn, Kaiba-boy!"

Seto put his book on the side table and headed for the living room, passing Mokuba, who met his eyes only briefly enough to narrow them, like that was enough of a warning to keep Seto from saying anything he supposedly shouldn't. Seto brushed his fingers along Mokuba's shoulder in an equally ineffective gesture and sat on the couch opposite Pegasus.

"You didn't seem to enjoy the movie today," Pegasus said. He had another mug in his hand, but was noticeably calmer than he had been that morning.

"I don't enjoy movies."

"There must be some that tickle your fancies."

"None to date. Are you going to finish off the coffee?" Seto asked, glancing to the half-empty pot in the kitchen.

"Help yourself."

Seto did. The sugar bag was on the counter, probably in case Pegasus decided to go back for another cup. Seto rolled the top back down and clipped it off for something else to do that wasn't talking with Pegasus.

"Your brother cut you off today."

"He did."

"Any reason?"

Seto nodded and turned back with coffee in hand. "Thinks I'll get myself moved again."

"Is that a lack of trust in me or in you?"

Seto lifted a shoulder casually while retaking his seat on the couch. "I took it to mean he didn't trust me. Thought I'd say something foolish."

"You do say a lot of foolish things."

"Says the man who wore a parrot in here last week."

"Clementine is  _far_  from foolish."

"And now you're offended on behalf of a bird."

Pegasus grinned and took a long sip from his mug before setting it on the table. "Clementine's no ordinary bird."

It was about the answer Seto expected from Pegasus, and since he didn't seem to have anything else to ask about in regards to Mokuba, Seto felt it was safe to change the subject. Pegasus would drag it back around if he needed to.

"Back in my first few days here, you mentioned this wing. Made it sound bigger."

"I did."

"Was that a lie?"

"I don't make a habit of lying. The other places I mentioned, probably the office, maybe the library, it's been too long for me to remember exactly, are just outside your door. You'll get access to them eventually."

"What about contacts?"

"You said you wanted glasses."

Seto shook his head and didn't look at the black edges around his vision. He had been stuck with them long enough and keeping them meant Pegasus had the option of replacing the normal frames again.

"I changed my mind."

"You probably all need eye exams. Full physicals at this point. I wonder if Torra- we'll work something out."

"Is that a yes?"

"It's a 'we'll worry about it after finding out if your prescription has changed.'"

It would have to do.

Pegasus leaned in for his coffee again and Seto made sure his back was against the couch for maximum distance between them. Getting demoted based on a technicality such as Pegasus being able to reach him would likely make him lose his mind. Especially if it were to happen because Pegasus moved into Seto's space.

Seto wouldn't be surprised if Pegasus announced they were going to play a game of tag just to have an excuse to move Seto downstairs. Not that he needed a reason. He didn't have to play according to the rules he created.

"How is it possible that you seem even more exhausted up here?"

"Constant vigilance is exhausting."

"Vigilance?"

Seto reached out and arm toward Pegasus. "For example."

"That's for your own good."

"That-" Seto said, dropping his arm. "-is so I'm unable to take a swing at you."

"For both of our sakes then. I remain uninjured and you keep away from the risk of my guards assuming the worst."

"Or you could just order your guards to assume that anyway. If I hurt you, that door won't open again," Seto said, pointing to the entrance. "Mokuba and I would die in here."

"That's true."

The agreement was light, as if Pegasus was agreeing that steak tasted better than gravel. Seto hadn't expected him to deny it, but the blithe response forced Seto to bite down on his tongue. It wasn't the time to argue.

"I'm not going to hit you."

"That's wonderful to hear."

But the order to keep his distance stayed in place. Seto considered working Pegasus into agreeing that an accidental crossover into the off-limits area wouldn't get him sent down, but it would be futile. Pegasus would assume anything accidental was intentional, that Seto wanted an excuse.

"There must be something I can bring up here for you to do other than read."

"I'm sure Mokuba would appreciate more movies."

"But you've just said that you don't like movies. I want to give you something specifically for you."

"I turned my hobbies into my job," Seto said. "You won't let me work."

"That's also true. But there must be something. You always seem so bored."

Seto finished his coffee and set the mug on the table, quickly leaning back when Pegasus did the same. The smirk didn't go unnoticed.

"When do I ever not seem bored?"

"Hm. I suppose just when you're angry. Now that's no way to live. We'll figure something out—oh! When you're dueling. I can bring your cards, get Mokuba a deck."

"Because dueling Mokuba would be the height of excitement."

"Well, Mr. Prickly-pants? I'm at least looking for an option rather than shooting all of them down. Tell me, little prince, how shall we keep you entertained?"

"I'm fine reading."

"I could bring a game console in here. Set it up so you two could play against each other."

That wouldn't be so terrible. Mokuba and Seto played a lot of games before as market research. That had been work, but it was more tolerable than board games or another notebook.

"That's fine."

Pegasus gasped and pressed a hand over his heart. "Seto, too-big-for-his-britches, spoiled prince, stiff-as-a-board, Kaiba is agreeing to play a simple-minded video game?"

"Don't get ones that are simple-minded."

"Then do you prefer a specific console? Racers? Player versus player?"

"Anything's fine."

Pegasus shook his head while getting to his feet, taking his mug to the kitchen. He ran it under the tap but didn't scrub it out. It was another thing Seto couldn't comment on. It wasn't like he had been washing his own dishes for the past eight months, although certainly it wasn't Pegasus who had either. Seto wouldn't have been surprised to learn that Pegasus had never washed a dish.

"Are we your last stop of the day?"

"You are. I'd normally stay a while longer, but after my day, I think I might have a chance of falling asleep at a normal time."

"How's Wheeler?"

"About like you were in the early days," Pegasus said. He walked back over and didn't sit, but stood behind the other couch and pressed his hands against the back of it. "Trying to cooperate to appease me, but then snapping at the first minor annoyance."

"But he's trying?"

"Are your glasses green?"

"No."

"Then there's your answer. How come you never ask after Yugi-boy?"

Seto shifted until he could rest his elbows on his knees. With Pegasus out of reach, his movements were more open, and he wasn't required to keep his back against the couch.

"He's not causing you trouble."

"You all cause me trouble, just some more than others."

"You only complain about Wheeler and Bakura," Seto said. "It makes them more interesting."

Pegasus shook his head. "You three will be the end of me. Keep up your delightful behavior, Kaiba-boy. I'll return tomorrow."

Pegasus knocked on Mokuba's door before leaving to wish him goodnight. Mokuba gave him the same in return and watched the door close.

"Another day down," Seto said.

"Too many to go."


	45. Chapter 45

Thanksgiving morning and neither Mokuba nor Seto wanted to get out of the bed. They stayed put, shoulder to shoulder and ignoring the light trying to force them from Seto's bed. Pegasus warned that the schedule would be different. They didn't know how or when he'd stop by.

"Can we fake food poisoning?" Mokuba asked.

"He'd sit in here with us."

"But like, couldn't he just not? No one even likes holidays."

Seto laughed and turned his head toward Mokuba, squinting against the gray light. He should ask about curtains, even if it meant they had to be taped to the wall so Seto didn't have access to a weapon, which Pegasus would see a curtain rod as.

"You like holidays."

"I did. Now it's just sad."

"It doesn't have to be. He'll still only be here half an hour or so."

"He'll be here forty minutes. If not more since he won't need to work. I don't want to celebrate with him anymore."

Seto sat up and Mokuba followed. He handed Seto his glasses and got out of the bed. Half of his things had migrated into Seto's room. His cup was on the bookshelf, still half-full from the night before. Mokuba's books, his sketchbooks, playing cards, and clothes were piled on the floor.

"Don't worry too much. We can make it through a day."

"Yeah, yeah," Mokuba said. "We'll carve a turkey. Find something stupid to be thankful for. Pretend some more."

"Why would we find things we're thankful for?" Seto said. His own cup was on the bedside table, and he took a sip while Mokuba did the same.

"We're talking about Pegasus. He's gonna make us do it."

"So lie."

Outside of the glass room, waking up without changing into work clothes felt wrong. They both had extra sets, but all in the same style, all black, and all sleepwear. Maybe instead of whatever ridiculous Christmas present Pegasus would come up with, they could request actual clothing. He would have to give it to them eventually.

"He could've at least said what we'd be doing."

"Some elaborate meal. I wouldn't be surprised if he got a full turkey for everyone."

"Or an actual turkey?" Mokuba said. He smiled with the statement, almost getting Seto to do the same.

"I doubt there's much he could do that would surprise me."

"Turn around. I'm going to change."

Seto planned to change after showering, so he went ahead and left his room for the kitchen, where the coffee pot had already brewed his first pot of the morning. It had been set to turn on at seven thirty. They had slept in a little later than that. But it was nearing eight and Pegasus hadn't stopped by.

It meant a different schedule and probably more than half an hour.

They would not like whatever he had planned.

"Seto? Have you seen my hairband?"

"Bathroom counter."

"Nope! It's not there."

"You took it off in there last night."

"But it's not there."

Seto carried the mug over into the hallway to look into the bathroom where Mokuba was still checking the vanity. "Did you look on the floor?"

"No Seto, I thought I'd check the windowsills first, then wait until Pegasus gets here and look in the hallway."

"Okay. Have fun looking."

Seto turned to leave and Mokuba grabbed his arm, sloshing the coffee almost over the edge of the mug. Seto steadied it and raised an eyebrow in Mokuba's direction.

"I'm sorry. I'm crabby. Holidays here suck. Please help me find it so I don't have to ask for another one."

"You don't have more than one?"

"Pegasus keeps taking them and forgetting to give them back."

"Then just tell him that."

"Please Seto? Just help me look?"

Seto yawned and took another sip, then nodded before walking into his room. Mokuba had taken his hair down in the bathroom, but maybe he carried the hairband into the room before going to sleep. It could have gotten mixed into the blankets or slipped under the bed.

After a few minutes of pushing around bedding one-handed, Seto gave up the search in the bedroom. It couldn't have ended up anywhere else.

"Is it on your wrist?" Seto called out.

Mokuba appeared in the doorway. His expression answered the question before he held up his wrist and tugged down the sleeve. "You'd think I'd've noticed that when I was changing."

"You forget that I'm well aware of the grog in your mornings."

Mokuba knotted his hair at the top of his head. Part of his bangs fell out almost immediately, so he shook his head to knock out the rest. Seto watched the spectacle while finishing his coffee. He would need another cup or two before he felt up to facing whatever Pegasus had planned.

Breakfast came and went with no sign of Pegasus. Seto cooked since Mokuba was still in a bad mood and only wanted to stare out the window. Seto did the dishes after for the same reason. Forcing Mokuba into doing something he didn't want to would only aggravate the irritation, and Seto wouldn't test it before Pegasus arrived.

He showered and shaved by nine and Pegasus had yet to make an appearance.

Either he was preparing for dinner all day, or he had plans for lunch. Seto guessed that he had to divide the time up between everyone, giving some people lunch with him and others dinner. Seto and Mokuba could make their own meals, so it wasn't essential for him to stop by before whatever was scheduled.

Seto sat on his normal couch with fresh cup of coffee and Mokuba moved from the window to sit in Pegasus's regular spot on the couch opposite. He picked at a fingernail and kept glancing back to the window, where a thick layer of clouds had rolled in.

"It rained last year on Thanksgiving."

"Trust me. I remember."

Mokuba bit his lip when he grinned. "I didn't get that wet."

"I believe the phrase, 'I am Aquaman' might disprove that."

"That is…" Mokuba paused and traced the line of his teeth with his tongue. "Not how…"

Seto waited patiently for Mokuba to come up with any story to explain away his words quoted back to him. The lake in their backyard had flooded after a day-long deluge, and Mokuba managed to get himself thoroughly soaked before showing up to dinner drenched, with his only explanation being, "I am Aquaman."

"Fine. But I never went under the water."

"We have cameras. I know exactly what you did."

"You watched the footage?"

"And saved it to review again and again."

Mokuba didn't seem to find it as amusing as Seto had, but it was really his own fault for not thinking about the cameras in the backyard. It wasn't just Seto who had watched, but all of the security team. Roland likely had a copy of it somewhere.

"I would say that I won't make a spectacle of myself this year, but you know, Pegasus."

"Maybe it will just be a meal."

Mokuba's scoff cracked and he coughed to clear his throat. "You were there for Halloween. He had a bird. What if he makes us chase down a turkey or something?"

"He wouldn't."

"Would you have guessed he'd bring us all here like this?"

"Like this?" Seto said, stalling with a sip of coffee. "No. But it's not like he's ever been above kidnapping and blackmail to get what he wants."

Splatters of rain hit the window and Mokuba jumped up to watch it fall. He would have wanted to sit out in it, maybe with a book under an awning, maybe under the onslaught with his chin raised to it. If the window opened, he would have already stuck out his hand to catch the drops.

"You think we'll ever go outside again?"

Seto nodded. "I'm sure of it."

"Yeah?"

"If he's let me out once, then it will happen again. Maybe not regularly, but some."

With the coffee finished, Seto went to the sink to rinse out the mug for use that afternoon. He set it upside down beside the coffee pot, which he turned off, and washed it as well. If Pegasus showed up, he would just brew a new pot.

"I bet it sounds awesome, raining on the ocean? It'd be like in the pool, but a million times cooler."

Seto followed Mokuba over to the window to see what the excitement was about. The strips of wire running through the window pane were distracting, but the view outside was still nice, if not a bit hazy through the low clouds. The ocean was just out of sight with the heavy fall.

"I can't really hear it. How thick do you think these windows are?" Mokuba asked. His head leaned to the side until it rested against the wall.

"Maybe half an inch. Do you really want to stare out a window all day?"

"Yeah. Sort of."

Seto inclined his head and settled in. He and Mokuba hadn't watched the rain since the orphanage days, when there was nothing better to do than race raindrops from top to bottom.

Even now, Mokuba's gaze moved as if tracking the same motions. Seto should have known if Mokuba did this sort of thing regularly. Maybe he had been watching storms all these years but Seto was just too busy to notice. He would have to fix that, pay more attention now that he could.

They watched the rain until Pegasus arrived ten after eleven.

"Merry Thanksgiving, brothers Kaiba!"

Pegasus wore a sweater with a turkey embroidered on the front, with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows. Thankfully, he didn't have an actual turkey with him this time. He had left the door standing open behind him, revealing the hallway outside covered in orange and red paper leaves.

"It's  _Happy_  Thanksgiving," Mokuba said.

"It is a happy Thanksgiving! I'm so glad you think so, little frog. But all this black you're wearing? That will never do. We need something a touch more festive."

Seto glanced from Pegasus's sweater up to him. "You're joking."

"Not even marginally. Come along. We'll get you two all set up."

Pegasus held out a hand to the open door and Mokuba took a half step forward. "Where are we going?"

"I should have your ears checked. We're going to get you two mixed into the festivities. Hurry up. It's not like we're made of time!"

Seto was interested and not at the same time. Pegasus having planned something out of the room was new, but having to change was too close to the glasses debacle. Even a sweater like Pegasus's was out of the question. Knowing Pegasus, a camera would be involved somewhere.

Mokuba gave another glance to the rain before following after Pegasus and with little other choice, Seto did the same. He stayed close behind Mokuba as they walked down the hallway, covered with more than just the paper leaves. There were displays set up everywhere he looked, ones that were likely intended for elementary school classrooms.

Seto hardly cared. As long as they weren't in his bedroom, it didn't matter.

"In here for now," Pegasus said. He opened a door that he had actually painted an autumn tree on, and directed them to three stacks of sweaters folded on the bed. "Take your pick. They're stacked by size."

"I'm not wearing a tacky sweater," Seto said.

"That's fine. I have those darling pilgrim hats for anyone who prefers to stay in their jammies."

Both Seto and Mokuba turned at that, but it was Seto who spoke first. "Anyone?"

"It's Thanksgiving. A time for togetherness," Pegasus said. "So what'll it be? Sweater or hat?" Pegasus took a step forward and forced Seto to take one back. "It's required of today, Seto."

Taking care to stay out of Pegasus's reach, Seto walked to the stacks of clothing and ran his fingers over the collars to find his size. The hat was even more ridiculous than a sweater, which of course, would have been why Pegasus chose it.

There were three sweaters in Seto's size and the best of them, which was still only a fraction better than the others, was brown with orange leaves worked into the knitted pattern. Mokuba ended up with a red one, covered in an overflowing cornucopia. Pegasus closed the door to give them privacy enough to change, although there was still a camera watching.

"I get that the fall colors are supposed to look like trees, but they aren't really, I don't know, flattering?"

Seto laughed as he took off the black shirt. "Looking to impress someone?"

"Oh yes, because you're giddy about wearing any one of these."

"My concern isn't how flattering they are, but how ridiculous."

"That's basically the same thing," Mokuba said, but they both pulled on the sweaters and let the subject fall. It was like Pegasus said, wearing them or not wasn't an option, and this would not be the thing to get Seto sent back to his prison.

At least he didn't try any matching pants. The sweaters looked all the more ridiculous when paired with the black silk pajamas, but it could have been so much worse.

Pegasus clapped his hands once he saw them. "You two are the epitome of holiday spirit! Or at least you look it now! Come along."

Seto felt slightly better once he saw that the guards posted down the hallways were all in fall colors, with turkey pins on their chest.

"Where're we going?" Mokuba asked.

"Just in here."

Pegasus pushed open a large set of double doors, opening into a dining room equally decorated, with places already set. Only five of the seats at the head of the table had plates in front of them, and two of those places were already accounted for.

"Mokuba!"

Téa jumped from her chair and ran around the table to hug him. Mokuba's smile was awkward, but he returned the hug, then stepped back beside Seto.

"And Kaiba?" she turned to Pegasus. "You hadn't mentioned."

"You hadn't asked," Pegasus said. "We're just about to get started. Little Mokuba, you're beside me. Kaiba-boy's across from Yugi."

They went back to the table, Pegasus sat at the head, Téa on his left and Mokuba his right, Yugi beside Téa and Seto beside Mokuba. They both had on sweaters as well, Téa's with the word "Gobble" written three times down the front and Yugi's with a pumpkin.

"Muto," Seto said.

"Kaiba."

"Yugi-boy's feeling a bit under the weather this holiday season," Pegasus said. He turned to a man in the corner, not in a guard uniform, but in a suit and fall-orange tie. "Bring a bottle."

Yugi didn't look sick. The most likely sickness would be the cold Mokuba had gotten over a few weeks before, and he wasn't showing any of the symptoms. He just looked scared, like the kid Seto met back in high school, before the Geek Squad formed.

In this condition, Yugi would be no help.

"So Kaiba," Téa said. "Are you staying with Mokuba now?"

"I am."

"Are you enjoying it?"

He stared at her like she had asked if the earth was round or square. "Am I enjoying not being kept in a cage and now living with my brother?"

"Kaiba," Pegasus said, tone low. "Be nice."

Seto blinked once and sat up a touch straighter. "Of course. Mokuba is enjoyable company."

"That's what I've been telling you all," Pegasus said. The man came back with a bottle of wine, showing Pegasus the label and pouring a glass once he received an approving nod.

"Any of my non-teenagers want a glass?"

Seto shook his head, Yugi whispered a muffled, "No thank you," and Téa accepted a half-glass. More of Pegasus's staff brought in pitchers of water and serving trays, loading up the plates on the table without a word.

"How much did you have to increase their salaries?" Seto asked. He reached for his water and Mokuba kicked his leg.

"Substantially. Luckily I have extra funds now that KaibaCorp is swinging back in full force."

"You're paying my prison guards with my money?" Seto said.

"It's not your money anymore. But we're having Thanksgiving lunch! Let's not talk business."

Mokuba gave Seto a little glare out of the corner of his eye, but picked up his fork like he was prepared to enjoy the meal. He almost took a bite before saying, "No peanuts, right?"

"I had my island cleared of anything that has come close to a peanut," Pegasus said. "You're cleared for takeoff."

They started eating, most of them going slowly, Yugi touching almost nothing at all. He ate less than Seto, which even Seto found odd, since he didn't normally eat with anyone watching. He managed half his plate, but Yugi kept picking at a plate that almost looked untouched.

"Saturday the Christmas decorations go up," Pegasus said. He waved for a refill on his wine. "Any preferences? Anyone?"

"I want a tree," Mokuba said. "You can get a real one out here."

"Of course. Kaiba?"

"Just leave my room how it is," he said, then took another bite.

"Or, we could get Little Mokuba to paint you some Christmas-themed paintings to hang in it."

"I like the paintings already up."

"What about lights?" Mokuba said. "Hanging them from all the ceilings?"

"That would be lovely. White or colored?"

"Mm. White."

"Perfect. What about you, Yugi-boy?"

He put down his fork. His eyes stayed pointed down to the table while he answered, "Anything's fine."

"You'll wish you had set limits for me, Yugi-boy."

Yugi took a bite, probably his third or his fourth. If this was an act, it was far more convincing than anything Seto had pulled off. There was nothing to think other than Yugi had truly broken. Pegasus won that battle.

If there was any of his spirit left to scavenge, Seto would have to find time to search it out.

"Téa?"

She shifted in her chair and messed with a stand of hair. "My mother and I always hang paper snowflakes around."

Seto met her gaze for no more than a moment. He didn't know how she worked with Pegasus, or if she was trying anything at all, but that statement had been a mistake. She didn't seem to realize it and her eyes echoed with anger.

"Ah yes," Pegasus said, taking a too-long sip of his wine. "Family traditions are a thing of beauty. The thrill of beginning anew is almost unmatched."

Her glare fell darker but was met with a polite smile. Throwing out her mother once wasn't going to trigger any sympathy. Unless one of them had happened to have been married before being kidnapped, Seto doubted Pegasus would relent. And even then, he would likely just track down the spouse to bring them along.

"What about you, Seto? Did your parents have holiday traditions?"

Seto had been about to take a sip from his water, but had to put it back down. The personal questions in private Seto could tolerate. Not here, not in front of strangers.

"They did."

Pegasus's lips turned up around the rim of his glass. He gave a quiet, "Oh?" before taking a sip, one that was clearly a prompt for Seto to continue.

Seto did not continue.

"Any that you and Little Mokuba would like to carry on?"

"I'll do whatever Mokuba wants to," Seto said. He kept eating for something to do and in hopes that the discussion would move from him. But with Yugi not talking and Téa upset, the chances of that were low.

"What about you?" Mokuba asked. It caught Pegasus's attention in a beat. "Do you have any traditions?"

"Hot cocoa on Christmas Eve, although to be fair-" he said, leaning over to Téa, "-it's usually spiked. Cinnamon orange rolls on Christmas morning. Playing Christmas music while trimming the tree. All little things, I suppose."

"Those don't sound so bad," Mokuba said. "Is that what we're going to be doing?"

"Unless you have a tradition that counters it."

"What if our traditions all involve being home?" Téa asked.

"That's no problem, seeing as how this is your home."

Téa set down her fork to face Pegasus as straight on as she could get. "My family isn't here. This isn't home."

Pegasus gasped in mock horror, feigning with a hand to his heart. "Why Téa, you should apologize to Yugi-boy. He's sitting right there."

She seemed just as horrified as Pegasus had pretended to be, spinning on Yugi and placing a hand on his shoulder. "You know that's not what I meant," she said. He didn't look up. "You have your mom and Grandpa. And I have my parents and cousins and grandparents."

She turned back to Pegasus. "You know what I meant."

"Of course I do. I don't need a special eye to see that."

Mokuba's hand slipped out from his lap and onto the arm of Seto's chair. Seto put his own hand on top of it for a moment, just long enough to give him a slight squeeze, and moved his hand back to his lap. This wasn't exactly how he expected the lunch to go, and it certainly wasn't Téa he expected issues from. Whatever strategy she was working, if there was a strategy at all, wouldn't succeed.

And Pegasus considered her one of his better prisoners?

How was Seto the only person actually putting in an effort to get out of this madness?

"Well, now that we're all nearly finished, or as finished as we will be," Pegasus said with a quick glance to Yugi, "How about we go around and say something we're thankful for?"

Seto caught Mokuba's smirk and rolled his eyes. He probably should have planned something in advance since they knew the question would be coming up.

"How about we start with you, Yugi-boy? Anything you're feeling grateful for this fine midday?"

Seto expected Yugi to decline an answer, or to just say there wasn't anything, but he looked up only long enough to say, "Seeing Téa, Mokuba, Kaiba."

His face turned back down.

"Wonderful. What about you, Kaiba?"

"Never having to see that room again."

Mokuba elbowed him.

"And this one," Seto added with a nod to his brother.

Pegasus laughed and leaned forward, elbows on the table, and turned to Mokuba. "What about you? I assume Seto's your number one?"

"Of course. And the Xbox. That's cool too."

"Who could forget the Xbox?" Pegasus said. Mokuba shifted like the comment made him uncomfortable, but Pegasus moved on to Téa. "And what about you, Princess and the pea?"

"Anything you're not a part of," she said, then finished off her wine.

"That's so little, Téa dear. Surely you can come up with something better than that."

"You didn't say we need to come up with more than one thing," she said.

"Now I'm asking for one better. That's hardly anything to be grateful for. Imagine me not coming to visit you. How would your food get restocked? Your laundry get done? New books, movies, games? You'd die without me."

"Because of you," she corrected.

Seto's hand found Mokuba's again. Any other movement felt like too much, like taking a drink or another bite would bring Pegasus back to them in his building anger. They had done their part to play along with the holiday charade and now needed to stay out of the rest.

"Very well then," Pegasus said. He sat up a little straighter and signaled for a refill on his glass. "Although I must say, it's going to be hard to celebrate Christmas without me. I don't plan to spend any of that particular holiday in a dungeon."

Her eyes widened and her lips parted. Her gaze flickered over to Seto, then to Mokuba, and finally down to Yugi like she expected one of them to help her. They couldn't. She had to know that.

"What do you want me to say? That I'm grateful to be here? That at least I'm not in a dungeon?"

"Isn't that all true?" Pegasus asked. He had to lean back for the man to pour his third glass.

"You're insane."

Pegasus raised the visible eyebrow. "You should chat more with Kaiba here. He's full of much more creative insults."

"I have a question," Mokuba said meekly.

Pegasus turned away from Téa, less annoyed than Seto expected to find him. "Yes?"

"What if I want to get Seto a present?"

"Hmm. It would likely depend on what it was, whether or not I could assist. We'll discuss it tomorrow at dinner. What's Christmas without presents under the tree?"

Téa accepted Mokuba's change in subject and didn't prompt any further argument. Dessert was brought out—pumpkin pie, a cliché fitting Pegasus. Seto ate a bite for show, and even Mokuba didn't take more than a few bites of it.

"Not a fan of pumpkin?" Pegasus asked.

Mokuba shook his head. "The crust is good."

"That's hardly sufficient. If you don't like the dessert, what's the point?"

Yugi spoke up and the table went silent. "You never said what you were thankful for."

"Didn't I?" He tapped a finger to his chin. "I should think it was obvious."

He sent for ice cream to wash away the taste of the dessert he called, "Befitting of only the unworthy." Téa stopped talking entirely, and Pegasus seemed to enjoy the remainder of the meal more than the first half.

Seto gave Yugi most of his attention. He didn't understand the purpose of the last statement as part of any type of plan. Maybe there wasn't a plan, or maybe it was better than what Seto had come up with.

He seriously doubted it.

But there would be one way to find out.


	46. Chapter 46

Mokuba sat his controller on the coffee table and stared at the screen.

"You cheated."

"Your mistakes."

"Then where'd that flippy-kick thing come from?"

Seto showed Mokuba the combination to achieve the move, only to prove that he hadn't been cheating. Then he put down the controller and went to make a pot of coffee since Pegasus would be stopping by soon. Having it ready in advance would potentially help encourage a better mood, although Seto doubted he would come in angry to hang up lights and decorate a tree.

"I'm gonna practice that and beat you."

"You act like that's the only combo I know."

"You've never even played this game before. How do you already know how?"

"There's a manual inside the box. You should read it."

With a huff loud enough to hear across the room, Mokuba scrambled for the box, sending it scuttling across the table before it clicked open. The pages rustled for a few seconds before Mokuba said, "Are you kidding? There's all kinds of tricky stuff in here."

"We made games, kid. You should have known to look."

"Should not've! I just did the storyboard stuff. You always put the disk in when we played."

"Whose fault is that?"

"Yours!"

Seto looked back to Mokuba and shook his head. "No. You have played games on your own before. That's not an excuse."

The locks on the door turned to signal Pegasus's arrival. Seto had just started the coffee maker, so he turned around to lean back against the countertop. He watched Pegasus enter wearing a Santa hat and carrying a plastic bin.

"Happy start of the Christmas season, Kaiba brothers!" he gestured for Croquet and two other guards to follow him in, saying, "You two know the drill. Keep back. Let the men do their jobs."

"Did you bring a tree?" Mokuba asked.

"I did. It's back there," Pegasus said after dropping his box and pointing. "It's fake, however. Less chance of bugs."

"That's okay. Seto never let us get a real tree either."

"Now real trees," Pegasus said, stepping aside so the men could finish carrying in the boxes, "Have a lovely charm. They're messy though, and that doesn't seem like something big brother Seto would enjoy for his holiday."

"You can see me standing here," Seto said.

"Had you thought yourself invisible?" Pegasus waved the men out when they were done and turned to Mokuba once again. "Did you clean everything yesterday?"

"Sort of?"

"Did you at least dust?"

"Yes! I did do that."

Pegasus looked to Seto to see if it was the truth. Seto nodded once and glanced back at the coffee maker when it started gurgling. It had a bit more to go, but he went ahead and pulled down two mugs. Pegasus kept creamer in the fridge for when he visited, and Seto brought that out as well.

"Very well then. We can get started. Want to do the lights first?"

Mokuba nodded. "Can you reach?"

Pegasus lifted a hand toward the ceiling, coming up a few inches short. "We'll need a chair. You can do the honors."

Mokuba grabbed a chair from the table while Seto poured himself a mug. He held up the other for Pegasus to see, received a nod, and fixed that one as well. He carried them over to watch Mokuba rummage through the first of the boxes to find the lights. They hadn't been stored well, so the strands were tangled together.

Mokuba sat on the floor after passing the coffee to Pegasus and worked at the strands while Pegasus sipped from the mug.

"I hope you know I'm turning this place into a winter wonderland," he said, side glancing at Seto.

"Keep my room out of it and it's fine."

"I have a single decoration that I am insisting goes in your room. Don't give me that look. It's small."

The mug stopped and hovered halfway to Seto's lips. "What is it?"

"A secret for later."

"You two could help, you know," Mokuba said. He had unraveled about two feet of lights, but had dozens, if not hundreds more to go.

Seto and Pegasus both sat on either side of Mokuba and and got to work on their own set of lights. They set the coffee down on the floor while they worked.

"You know you should wrap these when you're done with them," Seto said.

"Unless you have a time machine tucked away somewhere, the commentary isn't all that helpful. I'll let you take them down this year. Show me how a professional would store them away."

"A high honor," Seto said, pausing for another sip.

"Christmas music!" Pegasus said, pushing to his feet and rushing to the table. He pulled out his phone and searched through it a moment before music began to play. "Don't get your hopes up, little prince. There's no reception out here."

"Wasn't thinking of it," Seto said. He knew that this far off shore, they would have to use satellite phones to get in touch with anyone. Trying for the phone would be idiotic. When he took his chance, it had to be the right one.

"What decorations are everyone else getting?" Mokuba asked.

Pegasus sat back down to continue where he left off. "Let's see. Yugi-boy is getting a tree too. A few knickknacks here and there. Tea is getting a tabletop tree, very small, only about a foot high. She's refused anything more than that. Joey is going to get some lights, but that's mostly just because he's been in the dark long enough. The colors might help with his mood, although I do need to ask after that extension cord...Oh, our Ryou is getting the works, like you two. He asked for the colored string lights though."

"And Devlin?" Seto said, once he realized Pegasus wasn't going to continue.

"Isn't getting a Christmas."

In a glance, Mokuba and Seto communicated that they weren't going to press further on that subject. Mokuba likely had his own reasons and Seto did as well. If he was going to ask for a favor, Pegasus ought to be kept in a better mood than talking about Devlin would prompt.

"It's going to take us more than an hour and a half to hang all these," Mokuba said.

"We've got both of your time and I can stay through lunch if need be. Or come back during it. You know I have a few hours in between the morning and afternoon visits."

"But won't Ryou's take a while too?" Mokuba asked. "You don't have three sets of hands there."

"Just the one," Seto said, then drank the last bit of his coffee.

"That's still true. You know you can ask after him. I know how close you two have gotten."

Seto scoffed and set aside the string he had worked out. He got to work on the next rather than argue this subject with Pegasus again. Eventually, he would see that nothing happened between the two of them. The whole thing had been recorded. It wasn't like anything remarkable happened to bond them to each other.

It took a half hour to untangle all the lights. Then they had to carefully maneuver them to keep them from retangling while they started hanging them. Pegasus had brought hooks to attach up by the ceiling, and Mokuba stood on the chair to do the majority of the work. Seto held the chair and Pegasus held the lights, lifting up a new section as the need came.

"I should get a snow machine," Pegasus said, eye up toward the lights that hadn't been turned on.

"You shouldn't," Seto said.

"Don't get a rollercoaster, don't get a snow machine, honestly, Seto. You're such a bore."

"What would be the purpose of either?"

Pegasus turned to Seto and grinned. "Fun."

"Hey slackers," Mokuba said. "Chair's gotta move."

"Yes sir, oh captain my captain," Pegasus said. He stepped back so Mokuba could get down and Seto repositioned the chair a few feet over. Mokuba climbed back up and took the lights from Pegasus.

"You know this wouldn't be as annoying if I wasn't trying to stay three feet from you," Seto said. He couldn't actually support the chair standing off to one side.

"I'd rather not risk you strangling me with lights."

"If I wanted you dead, three feet wouldn't stop me."

"Geez, Seto. Calm down. I'm not going to fall off a chair."

"No one expects accidents," Seto said, "Stop looking down. It'll throw off your balance."

"Come now, Mother Goose. Little Mokuba's perfectly capable of hanging some lights."

Seto glared and Pegasus relented. "Fine. You can move closer, but keep both hands on the chair at all times."

It was a step in the right direction, so Seto took up the offer. Mokuba mumbled about not needing a spotter, but Seto ignored it. The last thing Mokuba wanted was to need crutches for the next few weeks.

They did the entrance hallway first, then around the kitchen. Before moving onto the living room, they stopped for a coffee refill and for Mokuba to eat a few carrots.

By the time eleven rolled around, the lights had all been hung, leaving three more boxes of decorations and a Christmas tree to be put up. Pegasus put both hands on his hips and stared down the boxes like they would unpack themselves.

"Okay, I've got to make the rest of the morning's rounds. Don't turn on the lights without me. Okay?"

Mokuba nodded and Seto didn't care enough to see them on to think a response was warranted. He cared more about whatever decoration Pegasus planned to keep in his room for the next month. It had to be in one of the boxes, but Seto doubted he would know what it was if he saw it.

"I'll be back in a jiffy," Pegasus said. He left his mug on the table for Seto to clean before leaving, locking the door behind him.

"I really want to turn them on," Mokuba said.

"He probably has someone watching for it."

"Probably. The creep. Want to do lunch now?"

"That sounds fine."

Lunch was leftovers from dinner the night before, which was leftovers from the Thanksgiving lunch. They didn't warm anything up, but brought the containers to the table and ate straight out of them.

"Are you going to get me a Christmas present?" Mokuba asked.

"It depends on Pegasus."

"Okay, but I asked him about your present last night. Didn't you ask about mine?"

Seto finished his bite and set his fork down inside the container of broccoli. "You are in a pestering mood."

"Because I want to know if you're getting me something."

"What if I'm not?"

Mokuba frowned and leaned forward to search Seto's face. It didn't take long before he moved back and settled in smugly. "You're totally getting me something."

"I don't know what you think I could get you when we're prisoners."

"Liar. You're going to get something awesome and you know it."

"I know exactly what my plans are, yes."

Mokuba continued prodding for information, and Seto continued eating without giving any. It made the meal go by more quickly, and distracted a large portion of the time until Pegasus returned at almost one.

"Let's get this show on the road! Tree first, then miscellaneous?"

He still wore the hat.

Mokuba agreed, but it was Seto who had to carry it from spot to spot until they decided which position pleased their 'winter wonderland' aesthetic the most.

It ended up beside the window and in front of Mokuba's easel. It blocked his view to the window, but he insisted that it didn't matter. He would end up painting the tree, or the abstract version of it.

"And it's not like I can't move the easel."

So Seto settled it there and stepped back with an eye on Pegasus. He had helped with keeping the necessary distance between them, which Seto wouldn't have been able to ensure while carrying the tree.

"And after hanging all those lights," Pegasus said, "We have to unravel another two strands. Why don't you and I handle that, Kaiba-boy, while Little Mokuba sorts through the ornaments?"

Mokuba nodded and announced that he had a very specific idea in mind for the final product, so they shouldn't try to interfere with it. Seto and Pegasus sat back on the floor across the room, each with a strand.

It was now or never.

"Is Muto actually sick or that depressed?"

"Depressed, I'm afraid. He's been like that since the realization that I'm quite serious about all this."

Seto nodded once and stretched out the end of the lights. "I wouldn't have expected that of him."

"Ah, he interests you now."

"You've broken the only person to ever beat me-" Seto paused when Pegasus raised his lip. "- _honestly_  beat me with no magical interference. Of course it's interesting."

"Wouldn't you say the use of his Puzzle is magical interference?"

Seto paused and considered. He hadn't even grouped the Puzzle into the same category as the Eye or the Orichalcos seal. Maybe he could account his losses to it. Yugi hadn't beaten him without it.

"Does he have the Puzzle now?"

Pegasus's grin was brighter than Seto had seen it in a while. "You want to duel him."

"You're interested in the outcome."

It wasn't how Seto intended to ask for time alone with Yugi, but it would probably work better than making the request straight on.

"I don't know how much I'd count on it now," Pegasus said, "I'm still yet to win any game against him."

"My chances are better."

"You say that so confidently."

"When have I ever not been confident going into a duel?"

Pegasus started to answer, even lifted his finger like he was about to counter the point, but then lowered it. "You're right. And now the odds are more in your favor. Especially considering Yugi-boy's unshakable glum."

Seto inclined his head and made sure to keep his gaze on the lights instead of Pegasus, to come off less abrasive than he might have normally. "Give me an hour. I can get him fighting again."

"Your rivalry might do the trick, but I'd rather not risk another, 'Shape up so we can escape' sort of speech."

"It worked, didn't it?" Seto said. Then he met Pegasus's eye. "If it were serious on my end, I wouldn't have told you about it."

"But now you've put the idea into his head while I've been trying to convince him of the opposite. I don't want that for Yugi-boy."

"Listen in. We'll duel. I'll pick up his energy."

Pegasus finished with his lights and waited on Seto before standing. "How about this, you ask again once we've gotten through the end of the year. If everything goes smoothly, I'll consider it."

Seto stood as well to wrap the untangled lights from palm to elbow so they wouldn't retangle on the walk over.

"Sounds fair."

"Excellent. Let's see what that child of yours has to say about the rest of the décor."

Mokuba had a lot to say.

"I don't like the red ornaments. Just because it's Christmas doesn't mean everything has to be red and green. I'm thinking, white, blue, and maybe some green. The tree is already green, so adding more would just be stupid. What do you think, Seto? Gold or silver? There's this tinsel we could wrap around too, but we'll have to pick one of the colors…of course you have an opinion! You have to look at it all month."

By the time every ornament was exactly in the position Mokuba visualized, even Pegasus seemed to be tiring of the holiday spirit he forced on them. He took off his hat and handed it to Seto, who refused to take it without reason.

"Instead of a star," Pegasus explained.

"It won't match," Mokuba said.

"It's a Santa hat in December. It matches everything."

"It's still November," Seto said.

"For like four more days! Take the hat, Seto."

Seto did, then straightened it out before reaching up and putting it on top of the tree. It certainly stood out against the muted colors Mokuba had picked out to decorate with, but neither of them could argue it.

"Oh, Kaiba. Your decoration." Pegasus turned to the remaining boxes. "It's mixed into the miscellany. Hold on."

Pegasus rummaged while Seto hung back. Maybe it would be something small that he could keep out of the way. The things Pegasus pulled out while looking for Seto's decoration were all on the smaller side.

How big could it be if it fit in that box?

"Here it is!" Pegasus said.

Seto and Mokuba both leaned forward to watch him draw it out of the box, and Seto squinted to make it out. Relatively flat. Bright. Rectangular.

A picture frame.

"I give you permission to take it from me," Pegasus said, holding it out. Seto took a few steps forward, reaching out himself to ensure they didn't touch. Pegasus handed it to him face down, so Seto flipped it over to see what was in the frame before giving a reaction.

He had put the locket picture together again. It had to have been months ago before he gave Seto's half of the picture back. It was a copy—Seto didn't doubt it since he had half of the same picture in his room—but Seto hadn't seen the two halves together in almost a decade.

The Christmas scene around the border of the frame hardly held Seto's attention.

"Think you can find a place for it?"

Seto traced his tongue over his teeth. "The frame switches out after Christmas?"

"Unless it's grown on you by that point. But let's not forget ourselves!" Pegasus said, throwing his hands up in gesture to the room. "We didn't do all this work just to let them sit dull."

He instructed Seto to take the lights for the tree and Mokuba those by the ceiling. They both had the plug ready to put into the outlets—and even that Seto hadn't gotten used to having—and waited on Pegasus's command to plug them in simultaneously.

It was early afternoon and the room still glowed.


	47. Chapter 47

Seto woke in the middle of the night when the main door opened. Mokuba shifted beside him, but remained asleep. It was just Pegasus coming in, and knowing him, probably in the full Santa suit in the event someone saw him.

He couldn't shake his head and risk waking Mokuba, who might insist on starting on Christmas morning at whatever hour it was. So Seto rolled his eyes closed and went back to sleep, listening to the sound of Mokuba's breathing rather than Pegasus dropping presents under the tree.

When Seto woke again, it was to the smell of coffee and cinnamon. The coffee scent was normal, but the cinnamon was new. Mokuba woke up with him and rubbed his eyes.

"Is he already here?" Mokuba asked. He reached over for Seto's glasses before standing. "We should get a clock for in here."

"Should've put it on your Christmas list," Seto said, putting on his glasses. He pushed to his feet as well, smoothing down his hair so at least one of them looked presentable. There wasn't any need to change, so Seto and Mokuba headed for the living room, stopping almost instantly under the lights Pegasus had already turned on.

"Bakura."

Bakura turned his head around, sitting on Pegasus's couch, and smiled. "Kaiba. Mokuba. Merry Christmas."

He still wore the straitjacket, but he looked so much better overall than he had when Seto first saw him down in the glass room. His face wasn't as thin and his skin had a touch more color to it. His eyes weren't as haunted.

"Well don't just stand there," Pegasus said from the kitchen. "Come in. Enjoy the morning."

He extended a mug for Seto, assuring him that the distance would be acceptable for that moment. Seto took it from him and went to his seat, facing Bakura.

"He didn't mention you were coming."

Mokuba sat beside Seto and brushed through his hair with his fingers.

"I didn't know until this morning. He surprised me as well."

Seto glanced over when he heard the oven door open. Pegasus grabbed an oven mitt and pulled out a sheet tray covered in what looked to be cinnamon rolls.

"Seto said you stayed with him for a while," Mokuba said.

"I did. This room is much better than your last."

Seto nodded. "And your new one?"

Bakura nodded as well. "Better than  _my_  last."

"Has he been causing problems?"

"Not so much. But he hasn't appeared with this off yet," Bakura said, shrugging his shoulders up to reference the straitjacket.

"Mokuba, be a dear and help me carry these plates," Pegasus called over his shoulder.

Mokuba did, and Pegasus instructed him to leave them on the coffee table and return for the cups he had already poured. Pegasus sat beside Bakura and settled the plate on his lap to start cutting off pieces from the cinnamon rolls.

"Are these the orange cinnamon rolls you were talking about?" Mokuba asked. Three cups of water were balanced in his hands, fingers stretched out around the third one. Seto lowered his mug to help before Mokuba dropped them everywhere.

"They are. I wish I could call them a family recipe, but they are a store-bought dough. One of these days, I'll learn how to cook things from scratch."

Pegasus began cutting up the cinnamon roll into smaller bites for Bakura. Mokuba leaned back and closer to Seto, and a glance at his face proved how uncomfortable he was with watching it. Seto had told him all the details of Bakura's stay in the glass room, but hearing about it had to be much different than witnessing it.

But Mokuba bounced back a second later, turning to look under the tree. "Did you get me something?" he asked, gaze back to Seto.

"Of course."

"There are more than two presents," Mokuba said.

Seto looked back as well. "I don't know why that surprises you."

"Kaiba, that almost sounds like one of the nicest things you've said about me, and you didn't even mention me by name."

Mokuba's nose wrinkled. "Huh?"

"Because I meant you should have assumed Pegasus would get you something as well."

"Ohh, then yeah. I should've. Are some for Ryou too?"

"Of course they are. Although, I'm sure if I told you he was going to be joining us, you would have slipped your names onto one of the cards."

"Or made him something!" Mokuba said. He took a large bite from one of the cinnamon rolls without cutting it. After dropping it back on his plate, he sucked on his fingertips to clean off the icing.

Pegasus chuckled and fed Bakura another bite. Some of Bakura's hair stuck to his lips, and Pegasus reached out a finger to pull it away. He offered Bakura chapstick, but the offer was declined.

Breakfast was too sweet for Seto's taste, but he ate enough to tide him over until he could make something more substantial for lunch. Pegasus had plated two rolls for each of them, so Seto finished off one of them and gave the second to Mokuba. It would be a lot of sugar, but it was Christmas, so Seto let it slide.

"So what'd you get me?" Mokuba asked once he finished eating. He dropped his plate on the table and on top of Seto's. They clattered together, and rather than wait to open gifts, Seto carried the dishes to the sink to wash them.

"Impatient little thing, aren't you?"

"Because there's no point in waiting around! And I can give Seto his present."

"Seto doesn't seem too interested in the morning's grandeur."

"He'll harass you until you let him open them," Seto said. He spoke over the tap instead of turning it off, debating going back for Bakura's plate. The dishes didn't have to all be done before Pegasus left. Staying distant from the celebration wouldn't be possible, but stalling was always an option Seto could draw out.

"Come on, come on! It's Christmas!" Mokuba spun around to place his hands on the back of the couch, staring down at the gifts wrapped under the tree. It looked like two for each of them, including Bakura. Two were green, two silver, and two red.

Pegasus laughed and fed Bakura another bite. It was the last one, so Pegasus set down the plate to offer Bakura a sip of water. "All right, little frog, you've convinced me. Yours are the green boxes."

Mokuba cheered and jumped over the back of the couch, earning a reprimand from Pegasus about not destroying the furniture. Seto finished with the dishes and glanced back to see Mokuba check the tags on each of the different colors. "Want me to bring over Ryou's?" he asked, holding up one of the red boxes.

"That would be very helpful. Actually, why don't we come to you? Unwrapping gifts while sitting under the tree's glow is a much prettier picture, don't you think?"

"Sure. Hurry up. Seto?"

One of the silver gifts was likely from Mokuba to him, just like one of the green would be from Seto. He couldn't hide on the other side of the room for those, leaving Seto no choice but to go over to sit beside Mokuba on the floor. Mokuba pushed the silver boxes to him, one smaller, the other large and long enough that Mokuba couldn't pick it up while sitting.

Pegasus helped Bakura to the floor and sat down as well. He put one of the red boxes in Bakura's lap although he couldn't open it himself.

"We will go around in a circle? Triangle?"

"I'll go first!" Mokuba volunteered, checking the tags on both of his boxes to find the one from Seto. From the two in front of him, Seto noted that one of them was labeled as being 'From Santa,' which nearly caused him to rip it off in spite. Putting it on Mokuba's gift was one thing, but Pegasus should have known better.

The wrapping paper came off in a moment and Mokuba slid a thumb under the tape holding the box closed to tear that as well. Pegasus had filled that box with paper, and Mokuba tossed it aside to pull out the charcoal set Seto had requested Pegasus buy for Mokuba on his behalf. It was the same set he had used back home.

"These are my favorites!" Mokuba pulled out each part, including the sketchbooks Seto mentioned, but didn't specifically request. Mokuba was better with charcoals than he was with paint. Seto looked forward to seeing what he came up with.

"Any ideas in mind for your first sketch?" Pegasus asked.

"Maybe a Blue-Eyes. We need at least one of them around for this to be an official Kaiba home."

Pegasus grinned. "I look forward to it. Why don't you go ahead and open yours, Kaiba-boy?"

The larger of the boxes was from Mokuba, so Seto started with it. He unwrapped it with much less vigor than Mokuba had, and Pegasus teased about whether Seto planned to save the paper to reuse with how meticulously he took it off. Seto didn't respond, but also didn't throw a wad of the paper in Pegasus's direction, which he thought was an impressive demonstration of restraint on his part.

"It's a keyboard!" Mokuba said before Seto finished getting off the paper. "And one of the good ones. Not the little ones that don't let you hit the high and low notes."

Seto finished getting the paper off before surveying the box, reading over the features. It wasn't a piano, but he could certainly work with it.

"Thank you," he told Mokuba.

"The box is already open," Pegasus said. "I put some sheet music inside, just in case."

Seto nodded to that and while they moved on to Pegasus opening the first of Bakura's presents for him, checked to see what sort of sheet music Pegasus thought appropriate. The top of the stack had the words  _Funny Bunny_  written at the top, and Seto picked up on Pegasus's smirk, even though his face was turned almost entirely away. The rest of the sheet music was normal, advanced enough that it wouldn't be a bore, but none Seto hadn't played in the past.

Pegasus lifted a single sheet of paper from Bakura's gift box. It had something typed on it that Seto couldn't see from a few feet away. The page was full and the type small.

"It looks boring, I know," Pegasus said, He kept the paper in front of Bakura's face so he could see it. "I'm having a voice-activated television set up for you. These are the movies I'm programming in."

"What'd'ya get?" Mokuba asked. He leaned forward and tilted his head to try to read the list.

"It looks like mostly horror movies," Bakura said. "A few I don't recognize the titles of."

"I added a few in that I think you might enjoy. And then a few more toward my tastes for the weekends. I'm not such a fan of demons and spirits."

It came back around to Mokuba and he opened the second gift with less enthusiasm than the first. It was smaller, smaller than Seto's second box, and he checked inside carefully before taking out two decks of cards.

"You're giving me Duel Monsters cards?" Mokuba asked.

"Take a look," Pegasus said, gesturing down to them.

Mokuba did, flipping through the first deck and shrugging before getting to the second. He stopped halfway through it and grinned. "This is Seto's deck."

"He didn't want it, but I thought you might want to make a go at beating him. I designed the second deck myself, specifically to take down his deck."

Mokuba handed Seto's cards to him. Seto scanned through them quickly, counting all forty and verifying none had been taken. The three dragons were on the top, and he traced his thumb over the line of their bodies before restacking them.

"You designed a deck to beat mine?" Seto asked. Pegasus created the game. He would have copies of the rare and powerful ones that would give Mokuba an advantage, and Seto didn't have his other options for switching up his own deck.

"I did. If you're going to have a chance at our Yugi-boy, then you should get to practicing."

"You just want to see Mokuba beat me," Seto said.

"I would love to see Mokuba beat you."

Seto chuckled and Pegasus laughed. Mokuba's cheeks turned a shade darker and he distracted himself by looking through the second deck again. The frown seemed out of place, too confused, too frustrated. Seto waited for it to fade, but the frown only deepened with the seconds.

"Some of these cards I've never heard of," Mokuba said simply.

"I can talk you through them. Don't worry, once you get used to them, Seto here will struggle mightily to win."

"Cool," Mokuba said, going through them again. The tone matched his expression. "We'll try it out."

"But we still have more presents to open," Pegasus said. He waved his hand in Seto's direction, and his amused smirk didn't bode well for what was in Seto's last box. Like Mokuba, he opened it more slowly than the first. Opening it rattled the contents, but Pegasus didn't seem worried about Seto damaging anything. He popped the tape with his thumb and opened the box before looking to Pegasus and shaking his head.

"What is it?" Mokuba asked.

"A tabletop zen garden," Seto said, tipping the box for Mokuba to see.

"To see if it will help you relax, take some of the tension off."

"By playing with sand?"

Pegasus shrugged. "It's worth a shot. Reading doesn't seem to be doing a lot of good."

Seto pushed the box away and rubbed his fingers against his forehead. It could have been worse. Even if Pegasus required Seto to mess around with the zen garden, he could have picked something much more ridiculous to force on Seto.

"Last one," Pegasus said. He put the second red box in Bakura's lap, and Seto took a moment to think through the fact that each of them only ended up with two gifts. For Pegasus's excessive nature, two gifts was nothing. And at the same time, Seto almost appreciated that Pegasus didn't cause a greater spectacle with the holiday. The space wasn't big enough to hold an abundance of presents, and half of what Pegasus came up with likely wouldn't have been used. The simplicity of two gifts each was more calming than a zen garden could ever be.

Bakura's next gift was a pair of house shoes, ones that he would be able to slip on and off without the use of his hands. He was pleased by them, most likely because they were a solid color and simple design. His feet were bare, so the slippers were a practical gift. Pegasus let him put them on immediately.

Pegasus gave Bakura something practical. Even the movies were since there wouldn't be much else for him to fill his time with. Aside from the zen garden, all of the gifts had involved actual consideration.

"And Kaiba, you didn't really think a zen garden was your gift from me, I hope? Don't think I've forgotten about your request for new clothing. I've had some ordered, but it snowed on the mainland and stopped the shipment. They'll be here in a day or two."

"Really?"

"I think you've been in pajamas long enough."

"Me too?" Mokuba asked.

"You too."

"But not like the Thanksgiving sweaters?"

Pegasus chuckled and shook his head. "No, I thought I'd get something you'd actually wear."

"Like, and shoes and stuff?"

"Like and shoes and stuff," Pegasus agreed. He got to his feet and straightened out his pants before guiding Bakura to his feet. Pegasus helped him over to the couch again, sitting him on the one facing the television before walking over to the kitchen table to pick up a DVD box he must have brought in before making breakfast.

"I have some other stops to make," Pegasus said, bringing over the DVD to put into the player. "You wouldn't mind watching our Ryou, would you, Kaiba?"

"That's fine," Seto said, getting to his feet as well. He needed another cup of coffee and to get off the floor. Mokuba followed him up, stopping Pegasus before he could leave.

"Hold up. I've got something for you."

"You do?" Pegasus said, a light smile touching his lips. These at least seemed to be real smiles, not the mocking ones from Duelist Kingdom, or the majority of the ones he gave Seto from the other side of the glass. Seto hadn't seen him smile this much in years, since back in the early days of their business partnership.

"Yeah. Let me get it."

Mokuba ran back into his room, coming out half a minute later.

"You can't judge me for how stupid this is," Mokuba said. His hands were behind his back, and even Seto was interested in knowing what he had managed to come up with as a gift for Pegasus. "I had limited resources and figured you wouldn't want a painting."

"I'm delighted at the mere thought," Pegasus said.

Seto stood a bit behind him and caught Pegasus's fingers bouncing excitedly against his thigh.

Mokuba brought his hands into sight, and in one of his palms, there was a small, folded…something. Seto wasn't sure what it was supposed to be.

"It's a frog," Mokuba said. "'Cause of the little frog comments. And look-" he set it on the table and pushed his finger on part of it, and the whole thing jumped an inch or two forward. "-it hops."

"That is…" Pegasus started, stepping forward to mimic the action Mokuba had just done, jumping the frog a few times. " _Brilliant_. Look at it! Could you make another? Then we could race them."

"I could," Mokuba said.

Pegasus's giddiness over a folded piece of paper seemed to surprise Mokuba. He probably hadn't expected it to go over as well as it did, but Pegasus kept messing with it until it jumped from the edge of the table. "Don't make the other one yet," he said, bending to pick it up. "I want you to show me how you folded this."

Mokuba agreed and Pegasus left, promising to be back before lunch. Seto waited for the normal sound of the door locking, and instead of three locks, he just heard one, which, with Bakura in the room, struck Seto as odd.

But it still wasn't the chance he needed.

He poured another cup of coffee and got a fourth orange roll for Mokuba. Bakura insisted he didn't need anything, so the three of them sat together on the couch to watch the Christmas movie Pegasus had put in for them.

"How are you really?" Seto asked.

"Better than I thought I'd be," Bakura said. "He actually listened to you. Aside from one or two incidents, he hasn't done anything. And if he keeps slowing down on escape attempts, maybe I'll be able to get out of this."

"What happened most recently?" Mokuba asked. He sat in between them and kept his eyes on the television while speaking. The cameras were still watching, so his act hadn't finished. And his excitement from the morning had disappeared with the Duel Monsters cards.

"He dislocated my shoulder. Didn't get out of the jacket though." He leaned forward to look across Mokuba and to Seto. "I was glad to hear you weren't in that room anymore."

"Trust me," Mokuba said, pausing before he took a bite, "We all were."

Seto sipped from his mug and moved his gaze to the screen. He didn't care about the movie, but Christmas was a holiday for Mokuba, and it was sit in the living room or sit in his bedroom. At least in here, he could play along for the cameras. It had been easier to play along than Seto expected. Pegasus had actually tried with the majority of the presents. And where he could have done something insane, he chose not to. Pegasus left Christmas almost normal.

Seto lifted his glasses to run his fingers over his eyes.

Pegasus had made it feel  _normal_.


	48. Chapter 48

"And again, I'm truly sorry it took a few days longer than expected. But they're here now. Let me know if something doesn't fit."

Seto nodded and tugged on the ends of his sleeves. After almost a year in pajamas, wearing a button-up was confining, and at the same time, one of the best sensations Seto had experienced in a while. Whether mental or actual, Seto didn't care. He had an entire dresser of non-silk clothing.

Pegasus took a step back and gave Seto a quick look head to toe. "It hasn't been that long, but this look is a startling difference."

"A normal haircut, contacts, and casual clothing?"

"It's uncanny how different you look."

Seto shook his head and glanced over to Mokuba's room, waiting for him to come out in one of the new outfits. Pegasus picked out much more casual clothing for Mokuba than he had for Seto, t-shirts and jeans, mostly. Seto had a few pairs of jeans in his stack, but only one t-shirt, and that had sleeves that went down to his wrists. And his eye exam a few days back resulted in a prescription for contacts, which Pegasus had fulfilled without delay. Mokuba just needed glasses to read.

"And you're sure these are the only snack foods he'll want? I can go get more."

"He doesn't need more junk," Seto said. "You brought plenty."

"Let the boy have his holidays. It's the last one for a while."

"I'm letting him have it." Seto tapped his foot on the floor and the taps echoed. He had thought socks were a big step up, but shoes were all the better.

Mokuba came out of his room and held out his hands. "Look, Seto! Normal clothes!"

His t-shirt was striped blue and green, paired with jeans and tennis shoes. Mokuba had pulled his hair back—which he had been doing with a lot more frequency than normal—but other than that, was dressed like he would have been back home.

"And wow, you look weird without the glasses," Mokuba said.

"They're in my room. I'm sure you'll see them tonight."

Mokuba smiled and stared at Seto for a moment. "You look so normal now."

"Did I look that bad before?"

"No, just different. Your face looks all naked."

Seto laughed. "This is how I've looked for your entire life."

"I know," Mokuba said, walking up and putting his hands on either side of Seto's face, which he didn't need to stand on his toes for anymore. "You look normal."

And the way he said it that time more clearly conveyed what he meant. They reached the point of things feeling normal.

The need for visible power plays was gone.

And it only took ten months.

He could only hope that in another ten months, he and Mokuba would be home.

But of course, he thought, leaning out of Mokuba's hands and glancing at Pegasus, if they managed to get out without killing Pegasus, they could never go home. Even if he ended up arrested, he had resources. He could see them locked away until his release, or until their death.

"Everything all right, Seto?" Pegasus asked.

Seto blinked and nodded. "Fine. Have you mentioned a duel to Yugi yet?"

"Not yet. We'll see how tonight goes, how he interacts with Téa and our Ryou. But you two still haven't played. You're supposed to be practicing, Kaiba-boy."

"It hasn't been that long since I've played."

Mokuba's calm faded into a forced, closed-mouth smile. He walked away from the conversation and over to the kitchenette to pour himself a glass of water. They still hadn't played for a reason.

"Even so, you should brush up on your skills. Don't worry about the theatrics. It'll just be a few guards and me watching on the cameras. Although if you want a trenchcoat, I'd be glad to track one down for you."

Seto rolled his eyes and messed with his sleeves again. The shirt felt stiff. Seto doubted that Pegasus had them starched, but compared to the silk outfits, it was restrictive. He would readjust, just like Pegasus planned for him to do for everything else.

It didn't matter at this point. Anything to gain Pegasus's trust.

"Shouldn't you be counting down to the new year?"

Pegasus glanced back to the clock. "I suppose we are getting close to that time. Keeping the others waiting may reflect poorly on me." He headed toward the door and paused to wave to Mokuba. "Goodbye, little frog. I shall see you in the new year!"

The smile Mokuba sent to Pegasus was large and fake. Pegasus didn't seem to mind it, but Seto waited for the door to close and the inevitable, "You should've backed out of this Yugi thing."

"It's a favor for Pegasus."

"It's a favor for yourself. You're being stupid."

Mokuba glanced up at the nearest camera and turned his back on it. There was another one almost across from him, but Seto stood between that camera and Mokuba, so it wouldn't be able to see his face. Seto's face was in clear view. He would need to be more careful with his words.

"Muto needs help," Seto said, forming the words clearly so even a low-definition camera would have a good chance of picking them up. "I can help him."

"What about me, Seto? How are you going to help me?"

"Sounding a little selfish there, kid."

Mokuba's expression darkened. He crossed his arms and lifted his chin to Seto. "You're going to screw this up."

"I'm not."

"You are. He's going to move you back downstairs and I'll never see you again. Is that what you want? For you? For me?"

"Of course not."

"So what are you doing? This is a mistake."

Seto shook his head. "I know what I'm doing."

"You're going to get yourself killed. And then what? What am I supposed to do without you? You're all I've got."

Seto stepped forward but Mokuba stepped back. So he wasn't ready to end the conversation. He wouldn't accept vague comforts to mask the fact that Seto still planned to visit with Yugi whenever Pegasus allowed it.

"Pegasus is going to listen in on us," Seto said. "I'm not going to say anything I shouldn't."

"You do what he wants and he gets jealous. You do what he expects and he gets angry. Has talking to Ryou and Joey proved nothing? Just work on your relationship with him. Get that right first."

Seto shook his head. "How long do you think that would take? How long are you willing for it to take?"  _How long are you willing to stay here without taking a risk?_

"It's better than you dying."

"That won't happen."

"Because you can predict Pegasus so easily?" Mokuba said. Maybe it was the new clothes or the position, but something about the way he stood emphasized how skinny he was. Seto had been equally thin at that age, but the stress of their current situation reflected on Mokuba's form.

"And you think avoiding things is going to help?"

"I want to keep you breathing and out of a dungeon."

Seto turned his head to either side, taking in the general view of the room before returning to his fix on Mokuba. "This is one, a nicer one, but one nonetheless."

He took a step forward and this time, Mokuba didn't move back. "Trust me. I promised you, didn't I?" He put his hands on Mokuba's shoulders. "I'm looking out for you first. The more people who go along with him, the better."

"You just got up here."

"I'm not going anywhere. Trust me."

Mokuba shrugged out of Seto's hold and turned away, facing the camera again. "Do you want to stay up tonight?"

They had about an hour until midnight, which Seto never cared about before. Maybe just for business, marking the beginning of a new quarter, but that was no longer part of his decision making. It might never be a part of it again. Everything would just be based around whether or not Pegasus wanted it to happen.

Seto ran his fingers back through his hair. They had to get out of this before it went any further. How long would it take before Pegasus had them all convinced that there was nothing left? Until technology surpassed Seto's abilities, making it impossible for him to find work once outside?

Mokuba grabbed a bag of chips from the table and carried it over to the couch. He sat where Pegasus usually did, facing away from the television, and Seto stared at him, and then the arrangement of the furniture.

"We should move the couches," Seto said. "So one isn't backed to the television."

"He probably did it this way so we can't watch TV while he's talking."

"We're not going to watch while he's talking, and he has to move when he turns on a movie. Might as well save him the trouble."

"By moving things from the way he set them up?" Mokuba said. He ripped open the bag and popped a chip into his mouth, settling more deeply into the couch as if to answer Seto.

"It means he wouldn't have to squeeze beside you on the couch when you watch a movie."

"If you want to rearrange stuff so badly, why not wait until it's not a holiday? We're getting a holiday alone. A crummy holiday, but still."

"Fine," Seto said, taking the seat across from Mokuba. "You win."

"It's not the only thing I should win on."

Seto shook his head and debated making a pot of coffee. He decided against it since Mokuba would want to go to bed and he couldn't stay up reading with Mokuba in the room. He should have asked for a desk lamp. He would need to remember that one. Or at least a clip-on light for his books.

"How long are you going to carry on with this?" Seto asked.

"Until you admit that I'm right."

"You're being ridiculous."

"Am not. I've been up here a lot longer than you have. And he doesn't even trust you."

"The point is to prove he can trust me," Seto said. He went over to the kitchen for something to snack on to tame the craving for a late-night coffee and ended up grabbing a box of crackers. He checked the box for a peanut warning and didn't find one. Pegasus had done well at checking the labels on what came in.

"Do you want this to become our normal?" Seto asked. He thought back to Christmas and to how he didn't even question any of Pegasus's actions because of their simplicity. Pegasus was winning just by making them forget there was a fight to be fought.

Mokuba moved a hand over his mouth and scratched at his nose while he said, "He needs to think everything is normal. You're not helping that."

"I'm trying to get us home," Seto said, turning his face down to one of the pillows on the couch and messing with it while he spoke to keep his face shadowed. At least the glass room only had the one camera. Keeping track of three was as tiring as constantly dealing with Pegasus.

"Me too," Mokuba said. "And I've been doing a better job of it."

Seto sat down, propping a foot on the coffee table. "You've been working with less restrictions. Of course your progress seems better." He paused to look away from the camera. "He initially predicted I'd be there for two years."

"That would've sucked. How 'bout you don't get sent back down there for that long?"

Seto's breath sounded more like a laugh. "I'm not going to. Do you really have that little faith in me?"

"It's just all this," Mokuba said. He ate a couple more chips and stared at the black television. "I'm really scared."

"You know we're going to get out of this."

Mokuba tilted his head. "I guess? It's been so long, Seto. The longer we're here, the less likely it seems. No one is looking for us. No one is coming to help us."

"This won't last forever," Seto said. The words were a poor source of comfort. What did forever really mean to them? Pegasus had already stolen so much of their lives. Escaping with him still alive meant remaining a prisoner, always hiding, always on edge, always wondering if he was around the next corner. And if they killed him, then they would have to live with that, actually being guilty of what Pegasus accused them of.

Seto could handle it. Mokuba couldn't.

This didn't need to be on Mokuba.

"Would it really be so bad?" Mokuba asked. He lifted his gaze to Seto and put down the bag of chips. "Once he trusts us. You wouldn't have to work all the time and no one else would try kidnapping me. We could do stuff. Try being happy."

"We'd be prisoners."

"We could make it work."

"Is this what you want?"

Seto set down the crackers and pulled his knee onto the couch to face Mokuba. The confession had brought fear around the lines of Mokuba's eyes, like he was waiting for Seto to snap at him for even considering staying. How had Pegasus managed to do this to them? To make living as a prisoner seem better than an alternative?

"Maybe you're right," Seto said. "Maybe giving in would be simpler. But I want more for you than this, than he will be able to offer you." Seto leaned in, almost deciding to take Mokuba's hand, but ended up leaving his own still. "I'm not going anywhere. I promise. Unless I know something is a hundred percent, I'm not taking any chances."

"Okay. Be careful?"

"Of course."

"I'm really not kidding, you know. If you get sent back down there, I'm never going to forgive you for it."

Seto counted down from three for Mokuba's follow-up, "Okay, I'd forgive you eventually. But I'd be very angry about it for a long time."

"I know. After this, I'm done asking to see people."

Mokuba picked up the bag of chips again. "After this you'd better be done with all the games for a while. New year, new start and all that."

"Are you making a resolution this year?" Seto asked.

Shaking his head, Mokuba said, "Seems pointless now, like wishes on birthday candles."

"You're too young for that kind of cynicism."

"I'll pretend not to remember you at fourteen then."

"You were six. How much can you really remember?"

Mokuba snorted. "A lot, you grouch-miser."

"Careful, you're starting to sound like our host."

"I know," Mokuba said. He turned back to face the television once again. "That's the idea."


	49. Chapter 49

"And you're still winning," Pegasus said, flat and stunned.

"Mokuba hardly knows what those cards do."

"I'm getting much better," Mokuba said. He leaned forward to rest his forearms on the kitchen table and stared up at Pegasus. "I'm not as bad as he claims I am."

"I'm not claiming you're bad. You just need more practice," Seto said.

"I almost beat you that last time."

"Yes, you're a brilliant strategist with a deck handed to you already strategized," Seto said. Mokuba's eyebrows raised, but he didn't argue it. All three of them knew Seto was right, but Mokuba and Pegasus both had wanted to watch him lose.

"Maybe I'll borrow the deck. See if I can do it justice," Pegasus said.

"But not today," Seto said.

"Oh no. You've got a match to get to. The library is all set up and wired for my viewing pleasure. Did you want to watch with me, Little Mokuba?"

Mokuba glanced at Seto and smirked. "I  _would_  like to join you."

Very likely to ensure that Seto didn't break his promise by talking over an escape or filling Yugi's head with notions of a brighter future off the island. It just had to be a duel or at least seem like nothing more.

Because obviously it had to be more.

"Grab your cards, Kaiba-boy. It's time to duel!"

His deck was on the kitchen table where he and Mokuba had dueled last. Mokuba used his elbow to knock Seto's hand when he reached for it, bringing Seto's attention to the seriousness of Mokuba's expression. Seto nodded once and backed up with his deck.

"The library is just down the hall. I don't suppose I need to give you any rules," Pegasus said. His hands were clasped in front of him like the excitement was too much and his hands were holding it in. This duel should not be that exciting for him to watch through a camera. Maybe it was just the excitement for the potential outcome, for Yugi snapping out of his daze.

"I want beat him just as much as you want to see it," Seto said.

"Then let's hop to. Try to beat him in under an hour. I have other stops."

"Lead the way," Seto said. He hung back a step for Mokuba, then followed out through the door. The guards in the hallway hardly glanced in their direction. It must have been a boring job. Maybe boring enough that they would slack off on keeping completely alert.

The library was only a few doors down. Pegasus sent Mokuba into the room one over, where he mentioned the recording devices were all set up. The viewing room, he called it. Mokuba went in with a final glance to Seto, then closed the door behind him.

"Promise you'll be good?"

"I'm not going to do anything reckless."

"You say that, but I know you, Seto. You're planning something."

Seto shook his head, then leaned it to the side. "I'm doing this as a favor because Mokuba doesn't think you trust me enough. I can walk back to my room and forget this if you'd prefer."

"No, no. Yugi-boy does need this. You were right there, but I don't want you to accidentally sacrifice yourself for him."

Seto laughed and crossed his arms. "I didn't know you thought so highly of me, the unintentional martyr."

"I'm just saying that you should be careful. Don't give me a reason."

"It's a duel."

"We'll see," Pegasus said, taking a step back before adding, "And hear. Don't forget that part."

Seto didn't wait for more warnings or threats, but opened the door Pegasus had led him to and scanned the ceiling for cameras. Two. They both pointed toward the window directly across from the entrance, where a table and two chairs were set up.

Yugi sat in one of them, barely glancing over when Seto walked in before turning back to the window.

"Muto."

"Kaiba."

Seto crossed the room, checking the titles of the books on the shelves he walked between. For being called a library, the room wasn't much larger than a bedroom. The walls were all lined with shelves, and a few were set up in the middle of the room. Seto didn't stop to give them more interest.

He sat across from Yugi and began to shuffle his cards. Yugi's were stacked on the table, face up and skewed.

"I expect you to take this seriously," Seto said. He put down his cards and crossed a leg under the table.

"I will."

"You sound so convincing," Seto said, and then added, "You could at least look me in the eyes as you say that." Yugi looked over from the window, holding his gaze long enough for Seto to say, "I've found that what people say when they meet your eyes is usually the truth."

Yugi's eyes narrowed before he nodded. "I understand."

He looked back to the window, but ran his fingers over his cards. The stall lasted just a moment before he flipped the deck and started shuffling. He handed it over to be cut and Seto did the same.

"How have you been?" Yugi asked.

"Fine." Seto passed the cards back and met Yugi's gaze. "You seem down."

Seto's cards slipped from Yugi's hands and glided across the table. None of them fell off, but Yugi sighed, "That-" he started, eyes facing Seto as he forced a smile and said, "-was my fault."

Seto gathered his cards back together and Yugi looked down at his own before counting out five of them. "Sorry. I just haven't been feeling myself." He got his drawing pile into position and let Seto know where he'd stack his graveyard.

"Yes, because moping will help your case." Seto drew his hand and scanned over the cards before looking up to Yugi. "That's absurd."

Seto went back to looking at his cards. Not a terrible first hand, but there wasn't much strategy to set up with four spells and a defensive monster.

"You can go first," Seto said, then reached for the notebook and pen resting on the tabletop. "I'll keep score. Four thousand?"

"Four thousand is fine," Yugi said. He placed a card face down and set one.

"I hear Pegasus hasn't beaten you," Seto said. He matched Yugi's move.

Yugi lifted his gaze for a second, "It's true," and drew a card.

"Do you think he's really putting in effort? Because-" Seto paused to play his hand and look at Yugi, "It's not-" he said idly, looking down and tapping his fingers to indict which of Yugi's cards he was attacking, "-like I'll go easy on you."

Yugi moved his destroyed card to the graveyard, keeping it face up and sideways to set it apart from the other cards.

"You never have."

They played a few more hands and Yugi took three hundred points of damage. Seto made note of it on the score sheet and drew his next card, glad to have more than just spells turning up.

"You spent the holidays with Gardner?"

"I did."

"She seems off too."

Seto surveyed his hand and the field, spotting an opening to steal a few hundred life points. He took it, but a trap cut the damage in half. Yugi would have to start hitting back eventually, otherwise a win here wouldn't count.

"She's tired."

"That's an excuse," Seto said, setting two cards.

Yugi glanced up. "Then what-" he looked down at his hand to play a card, "-are you expecting?"

"Not this zombie act."

Seto thumbed a finger over the cards in his hand and tried to think of a way to answer the question Yugi had actually asked without tipping off Pegasus. Any mention of anything unrelated to dueling would certainly raise flags. They would have to work back around to it. Yugi needed to know why there were here, however Seto could get the information across.

"Your family is here," Yugi said. He stared at his cards before folding his hand and shaking his head. "Mine's not."

"You're going to have to start attacking me if you want to win," Seto said. He thought through where that train of dialogue would lead and thought he could tie it in.

"Sorry. I'm sure you wanted a better match than this."

"Our duels don't seem to happen under the best of circumstances," Seto said. He met Yugi's gaze. "Remember Duelist Kingdom?"

Yugi lifted a shoulder, gaze still on Seto. "Yes."

"That balcony duel was hardly fair for either of us," Seto said, attention back on his cards. Then, as if remembering what he meant to say, flickered his gaze back up to add, "Do you know why he did it?" He glanced down to place a card in attack mode. "Why he made us duel?"

Yugi nodded and attacked Seto's monster. An added spell gave him the advantage, and Seto lost his first life points of the duel. He wrote it down with less bitterness than he thought he would have. At least Yugi was putting in some sort of effort.

"Yeah," Yugi said, looking down after he spoke to straighten his deck. "I never did apologize for how we acted after that. Should've realized it wasn't just to win a tournament."

"I still can't believe any of you thought I'd kill myself over a game," Seto said. He looked up after making his move. "But you won."

Yugi frowned and quickly started looking through his hand, like his cards were new and he didn't know what to do with them. Seto felt his foot tapping underneath the table. He would have to catch on more quickly than Seto had if they were going to work this discussion into the span of a tabletop duel.

"I guess we all thought Battle City was-" Yugi paused to lift his face back up. His gaze met Seto's, confused, conflicted. "-I don't know, revenge?" He shook his head and looked back to his cards. "Because you lost at Duelist Kingdom."

"I'm not saying I didn't intend to beat you in that tournament," Seto said. He set another card and ended his turn. "But it wasn't revenge. That's such a petty notion."

Yugi smirked down at the table and Seto hoped Pegasus had been able to catch it on the cameras. It had to give some credit to Seto, prove even a bit that Seto had done his best to wake Yugi up. A smirk was a start, slow and at Seto's expense, but a start.

"Is it my turn?" Yugi asked.

With a quick glance up, Seto said, "Yes."

Yugi's turn went by with Seto's life points intact. He sighed and shuffled the few cards in his hand. "Have you seen the others? Joey? Ryou?" He paused and met Seto's gaze. "Duke?"

When he went to set a card, one fell from his hand, face-up, on the table. He put it back in his hand and said a simple, "My mistake," and catching Yugi's eyes for the last word.

Seto and Yugi went back and forth a dozen more hands, finally having worked their way into the final stages of the duel. Yugi got his Dark Magician on the field and Seto had a Blue-Eyes in his hand that could be summoned the next turn. His life points were up by five hundred. It was still anyone's game though.

Seto sacrificed his monsters on the field to summon the Blue-Eyes. Seto felt Yugi's exhale graze over his hands. In Yugi's current state, it might not have meant anything, but Seto wanted to believe Yugi didn't have the cards needed to get his Blue-Eyes off the field.

Winning under these circumstances wouldn't be a true victory. This wasn't the Yugi Seto cared to beat. The broody depression wasn't reflective of Seto's rival. Actually winning would only happen if Yugi had his Puzzle. Magic or not, that was how Seto had to win for it to count.

"How are things with," Yugi said, pausing to set a card in defense and another face down. He glanced up once finished, "-Mokuba?"

Seto nodded and tapped to indicate his attack. Yugi slid his card over to the graveyard. "About how you'd expect. Moody teenager adjusting to a new life."

Imagining Mokuba's reaction on the other side of the wall was well worth the earful Seto would be getting once they were back in their room.

"And how are you?" Yugi asked.

"Treading," Seto said. He surveyed the field and took a moment to question Yugi's two face down cards. He would likely have some sort of a defense set up to protect the small number of remaining life points. Seto placed a trap card to negate damage to his own life points before attacking the Dark Magician with his Blue-Eyes.

Yugi lost the card but had a trap waiting that raised his life points by the difference in defense points. But his card was out of play, so Seto shrugged it off and still made note of it on the scoring sheet.

"You know he bought KaibaCorp," Seto said, catching Yugi's attention for the end of his sentence.

"I didn't know that," Yugi said. "Mokuba hadn't mentioned."

"I doubt he cares as much. Probably glad it takes away my ability to return to work."

"I'm sorry to hear that though," Yugi said, messing with the cards in his hand before looking up to Seto. "There's nothing you can do though."

Seto held his gaze and lifted a shoulder to shrug for the cameras. "Won't know until I've tried."

All that should have meant to Pegasus was that Seto would like to return to working again at some point. It might have been too on the nose for their current train of conversation, but there was nothing to be done about it. Seto finished his turn and waited on Yugi. Neither of them had more than a thousand life points remaining, but if Yugi kept taking so long for each of his moves, then the game would continue for at least another hour. Seto had the cards set up to win, so long as Yugi couldn't magically pull out the one card that would save him, which honestly, wouldn't have surprised Seto that much anymore.

Yugi glanced up at Seto for a moment before making his move. "I can't-" he said, looking down to put his card in the right spot, "-imagine what that's like for you."

Seto drew another card and added it to his hand. He didn't have the means to hit Yugi's life points directly, but he could clear the monsters from that side of the field, so long as neither of Yugi's set cards interfered. And the monster Yugi had in play was defensive, so when Seto attacked, after summoning a third monster in defense, their life points remained the same.

"I'm sure you can," Seto said, meeting Yugi's eyes for just a moment before returning to the game. "It's not that hard to think on."

Yugi tapped the table a few times to draw Seto's gaze back up. "How do you?" He smiled apologetically before looking at the card he drew. "That is, how do you handle knowing he has your company?"

Yugi got a monster on the field, but didn't have any other monsters to prevent Seto from hitting his life points directly once it was gone. Maybe the remaining face down card would stop him. Maybe not.

"He has it. Nothing I can do to change that."

Seto indicated his attack, and the face down card reflected it back to Seto's Blue-Eyes and destroyed it. But that left two monsters on Seto's side of the field, one of which easily took Yugi's remaining monster out of play. The third had to stay in defense because the attack was too low to risk letting Yugi hit it. If Yugi got a decent monster on the field, then Seto's life points would hit zero.

"Besides," Seto said, then brought up his gaze, "I've got Mokuba."

Yugi folded his hand to give Seto his full attention, which Seto hadn't intended for them to do at any point in the conversation. But there wasn't any way to tell him that, to stop him before he gave everything away in just a sentence.

"It can't be that easy," he said, and Seto breathed in quiet relief.

"I'm handling it how I can."

"How?"

Seto folded his own cards and leaned forward. His elbows rested on the edge of the table and he kept his eyes locked onto Yugi's. "If you don't want to play, to win, just say so."

Yugi fanned out his hand and played a monster, defense higher than Seto's attacking power. Another set card, probably a trap.

"Okay," Yugi said, "Let's finish."

Seto drew his next card—another Blue-Eyes. He played another monster instead to get ready to sacrifice on the next turn, adding a trap face down to prevent Yugi from messing with his strategy. They had gotten to the last few moves of the duel and Seto had the current advantage, even if Yugi didn't know it.

"How are you really expecting to win?" Yugi asked, just as Seto glanced up to indicate that his turn was over. Yugi turned down to his cards while he added, "It's not like you've ever beaten me before."

Seto smirked because although the last bit tacked on was more for show than anything, it was what Pegasus wanted to hear. A spark of fight surging up.

It was also what Seto had been looking for, even if it wasn't directed at him at all.

He waited for Yugi to glance back before displaying the back of his cards, gaze locked onto Yugi's. "Play the cards I'm given."

Yugi used a spell to strength his monster and attacked one of Seto's, but his trap cut off the attack and rebounded on Yugi's monster. It set Seto up well for his next turn, so long as he drew a decent magic or trap. Additional monsters wouldn't help.

"You'd better have a good hand then," Yugi said, examining his own before adding a card into play.

"You're a bit late to the game to start mouthing off," Seto said. He summoned his Blue-Eyes, sliding the two sacrifices and used trap to the graveyard.

Yugi played a monster reborn. "Blue-Eyes from your graveyard," he said.

Seto put down his hand to flip through his graveyard for the indicated card, handing it over with a strict warning about not bending it. Yugi nodded and put it into play, straight across from Seto's.

"It's weird," Yugi said, tracing his finger along the table beside the Blue-Eyes on his side of the field. "Playing like this isn't nearly so intense."

"I'm surprised we're not down in one of his dueling arenas. I guess it's too much technology for me to be around."

"Or he's worried I'd jump to my death," Yugi said.

"That too."

Seto drew his next card, Shrink. Yugi's side of the field had a Blue-Eyes in attack. No potential for a trap or a spell. Nothing to stop Seto from winning on this turn. Use Shrink on Yugi's Blue-Eyes and attack it straight on. Simple. Clean.

He won.

He beat Yugi.

More than that, Yugi agreed to play along with Pegasus. He was talking more, acting more like himself. He might not have been back to how he acted before, but Seto got it started. He did what he came out to do.

Winning might be a step in the wrong direction.

 _But he won_.

Seto set a worthless trap card and ended his turn. He watched as Yugi drew his next card and grinned. His magical ability to draw had been a single hand too late. He played his Alpha the Magnet Warrior in attack mode before setting a magic card.

"Brave attack. Combines their attacks. Attack."

Seto slid his Blue-Eyes from the field and into the graveyard, drawing a zero under his life points.

He met Yugi's gaze for a final time. "You win again."

Yugi looked down at the cards still in Seto's hand. "What'd you have left?"

"Nothing much," Seto said. He shuffled all his cards together and took back his Blue-Eyes from Yugi.

"Did you beat me?" Yugi asked.

Seto held up the score sheet. "I've got the zero."

"If you would've won, you should tell me. I can't count this otherwise."

"What does it matter? Your perfect record lives another day."

"Kaiba!" Yugi got to his feet, hands on the table, and leaned forward. It might have been somewhat intimidating if Yugi wasn't half a foot shorter than Mokuba.

"What?"

"You let me win."

"What would that accomplish?"

"I don't kn-" Yugi paused and rested back on his heels. "You think it will make me complacent for whenever we make a show of it?"

Seto liked the wording, glad that Yugi had caught on to the need for careful word choice so quickly. But he looked over to the door as if waiting on Pegasus to come in for him. "That's assuming I let you win. Which, let's be honest, doesn't sound like me."

"Of course not."

The door opened for Pegasus to sweep in, grin as bright as his tie. "Congratulations, Yugi-boy! It seems you are truly undefeatable."

"Sure," Yugi said, "I'm sure that I won that based on skill."

The sarcasm alone proved that Seto had done his job. Pegasus smiled in response to it and clasped his hands together excitedly. "Well gather your things," he said, adjusting the position of his hands like staying still was too much for him, the same way he had held them before the duel. "We've got to be getting back to our rooms."

Yugi sat down for a moment to collect his cards, shuffling them once before standing again. He already looked more himself, expression clearer, posture straightened. It might fade once Seto wasn't watching, but at least it was some sort of effort. That had to mean trust for Seto. He was three for three in getting Pegasus's visitors moving in the right direction, or at least, the direction Pegasus wanted them to move in.

If Yugi played along, it would be a win for the both of them.

"Kaiba-boy, you can get back without me, I presume?"

Seto nodded and stepped out of the library, meeting Mokuba in the hall. He and Yugi greeted each other shortly. Croquet led Seto and Mokuba back to their rooms while Pegasus walked with Yugi down the other way. Seto watched to see what door they went into, but he reached his room first and wasn't allowed to linger in the hallway.

Croquet locked them in.

"What was that?" Mokuba asked.

"We dueled."

Seto took off his shoes and left them just inside his bedroom door. Mokuba did the same before crossing his arms and staring down Seto.

"That was not a normal conversation."

"It's not like we are casual acquaintances. Of course the conversation sounded off."

Seto headed into the kitchen, dropping his cards on the table, and started on the dishes leftover from earlier. Mokuba followed him in, but didn't move to help, just leaning against the counter to get a better angle on Seto's face.

"Tell me what you accomplished."

"Yugi now knows why we're here. He agreed to play along."

"How did you tell him that?"

"You were listening to the conversation."

Mokuba groaned and pushed back to stand a few feet away. "Seriously, Seto? You lied to me. You said it was just a duel and that you weren't going to risk anything."

Seto dropped the dish in his hand and turned around, hands dripping. "You saw Pegasus. He was happy with the outcome of the duel. Yugi was talking more. I did what I told him I would."

"You lied to me."

"Not really."

"A little lie is still a lie, Seto."

Mokuba backed up when Seto tried to take a step toward him. His lips set firmly but his hands moved like he was trying to express his point without adding anything else.

"I told you I wouldn't risk anything. I didn't."

"And when he watches the conversation back and figures out what you were really saying?"

"He got what he wanted out of it. He's not going to analyze it."

"But he might. And you're going to ruin all of this."

"Give me some cred-"

Mokuba walked out of the living room. Seto threw up his hands and went back to the dishes, scrubbing harder than necessary.


	50. Chapter 50

"So tell me, how have things been? You haven't been so talkative recently."

"Mokuba went back to his room."

"Yes, I had noticed that. But those beds are so small."

"I guess it means he's used to the idea of me being here."

"Have you gotten used to that idea yet?"

"It's only been a few months."

"It's funny, before you you would've said, 'It's already been three months.'"

"We're a month away from our anniversary. I'm sure that'll be quite a big day for you."

"How so?"

"Do you really think anyone is going to come for us after a year?"

"I didn't think anyone would come for you after a week."

"So how long is this it? It has to be frustrating to constantly make the rounds."

"That's actually what I'm here about. Okay, I'm here because it's your time slot, but also I'm adding this other thing onto it."

Seto leaned forward and propped his elbows on his knees. Something new hadn't entered their routine since the duel with Yugi a month before, and that hadn't even been a fixture, just a one-time event. So he let his interest show, especially since it was something he cared about.

"Let's get Little Mokuba out here, shall we?"

Pegasus turned from his spot on the couch and shouted for Mokuba to join them. He walked out of his room a moment later, peeking down the hall before heading into the living room, sitting on the far end of the couch.

"I have something for you both."

He looked up to one of the cameras on the wall and waved, and a few seconds later, the door opened. Croquet brought in a box, closed, so they couldn't see what was inside of it.

Seto didn't understand how anything in the box would relate to Pegasus not needing to visit everyone so often. But his interest was still high and Seto tracked the box's movements to Pegasus's lap and watched at the lid was opened.

"I'm not going to lock the door anymore," he said.

"What?" Mokuba and Seto asked, their words almost simultaneous and sounding like an echo.

"Feel free to come and go as you please."

He brought his hand out of the box and set two black bracelets on the coffee table. They were thick and each had a green light glowing from the top. "But you have to wear these when you go out."

"What are they?" Seto asked.

"Tracking devices. They don't lock on and they won't shock you. So don't worry about that. It just lets us know where you are. And-" he said, exchanging the box for a band. "The light will turn red if you go somewhere you're not supposed to. The dungeons, my wing, security rooms, that sort of thing. You will have access to my office if I'm in there so if you need anything, you can just drop by."

"If we go somewhere that's red and don't backtrack?" Seto asked.

"Expect a visit from the guards. They'll take the bands until I feel you're ready for them again."

"You're serious?" Mokuba asked. He picked up the one on the table and fit it on his wrist, then fumbled for the clasp a second before popping it off.

"I am. You won't have access to anyone else's room, but once I trust them with the bands, you can meet up in the library or the kitchen or wherever. Oh, and you'll start restocking your own kitchen now. Or using mine. Either way is peachy."

Pegasus held the band out to Seto. "Show the camera that you're wearing it before you leave."

Seto took it. "You kept me in that cage for eight months before moving me up here. Now less than half that time later you're letting me wander your home?"

"Sure. You're not going to try anything, are you Seto?"

"No."

"Marvelous. Then I have nothing to worry about. You have three seconds with the red light, by the way. So keep an eye on it if you're not sure."

The rain outside picked up, drawing Mokuba's gaze over to the window. It hadn't stopped raining since the night before and Mokuba spent too long staring out the window at it.

"So if I want to walk out in the middle of the night?" Seto said.

"Just show your wrist to the camera."

So there would always been someone watching or Pegasus just wanted them to think that. But either way, he was letting them leave the room. Giving them limited movement around the castle.

It hadn't even been a year.

"Why?" Seto asked. Like Mokuba had done, he tested the band to make sure he could get it on and off easily.

"This is your home now. You're not supposed to feel like a prisoner forever."

"What if we fall asleep in the library?" Mokuba asked.

"Keep the band on."

"Do you still want us in here during the time slots?" Seto asked.

Pegasus shrugged. "I'll come to you. Just try not to be in the shower."

Seto shook his head. Pegasus would have to let that go eventually.

"Are you going to give us a tour?" Mokuba asked.

"No, I think you would enjoy exploring much more. Get a feel for the place on your own. Keep an eye on the light though. I really don't want to take them away for an accident."

"Why today?" Seto asked. He put the band back on the table to give Pegasus his attention. Something wasn't adding up or there was a piece of information Seto didn't have in order to understand. Pegasus didn't make decisions like this lightly. Nothing significant had happened in the past month that Seto could attribute to this decision.

"Do you want them or not?"

"Of course," Seto said.

"Then say thank you like a normal person and stop trying to talk me out of this gift."

"Fine," Seto said. And Mokuba added the, "Thank you."

"Very well. It's time for me to carry on with my Sunday morning. You two don't get into any trouble."

Pegasus stood with the box and handed it to Croquet. They left the room together, and both Seto and Mokuba waited in silence to listen for the locks.

They never came.

"He's serious," Mokuba said. He snapped the band on and off again. "He's actually serious."

"Did you do something that would make him-"

"No? I can't think of anything."

They didn't get up for several minutes, like they were waiting for Pegasus to come back in and reveal it was all a joke. But the room stayed quiet and Pegasus didn't come back. The lights on the band remained green. The door stayed unlocked.

"Want to go?" Mokuba asked.

"And _I'm_  the one taking risks."

"Oh please," Mokuba said, getting to his feet and putting on the band. "He knew we'd go immediately. Come on."

Seto stood up as well, holding the band and staring down at it. Was it some sort of test? Would leaving now prove some unknown point to Pegasus? It might have been too great of a risk to take immediately.

"He might think we don't want them if we don't use them," Mokuba said, "I'm going. You coming or what?"

After clasping the band on his wrist, Seto said, "Shoes first."

Mokuba grinned and ran back to his bedroom. All of his things had finished migrating over the day before, so Seto's floor was clean and Mokuba's now a mess.

Mokuba had moved. That was what had changed.

"Hurry up, Seto!"

Seto put on his shoes and met Mokuba in the hallway. He had tied back his hair again and Seto had to ask, giving the ponytail a slight tug, "Do you just want me to cut it?"

"Then it'd just hang everywhere and I couldn't pull it back when I wanted to."

"It's still doing that now."

"But to a lesser extent."

"Let me know."

"Sure. But let's go explore a castle."

Mokuba held his wrist up to the camera and gestured to it like he was trying to sell it on an infomercial. Seto gave a halfhearted effort to show his to the camera since he knew they could see it without him having to hold it up.

Mokuba opened the door and the light stayed green. He looked up to Seto with a perfectly bright expression, happier than Seto had seen him in some time. He walked ahead, keeping his wrist up and focus on the light, while Seto hung back to close the door. The locks got a brief examination before he moved on, past a guard stationed by the elevator.

Stretching out his wrist toward the elevator doors, Mokuba said, "Light says go."

"You don't want to look around up here first?" Seto asked.

"Nah. Up here's dull. Let's go down."

Seto surrendered and followed, keeping an eye on his own light to be safe. Mokuba pressed the button for the main floor, which Seto assumed was because it was the lowest they could safely go. Pegasus had to know better than cutting off an entire floor. They wouldn't be able to get back up before the light turned red for three seconds.

"You have an idea of where we're going?"

"I do. Kitchen's probably down here anyway."

"Anyway?" Seto said, "You have somewhere else in mind?"

"Yeah. Hold on, that hallway's red. Don't go that way."

Mokuba followed the light through a dining room and into the kitchen. "That was easy," he said, lowering his arm for likely the same reason as Seto. Pegasus mentioned the kitchen being one of the rooms they could go to. So he assumed that the entire space would be in the green zone, but he still checked every few seconds, to be sure.

"Look at all this, Seto." Mokuba had opened up the refrigerator, one the same size that they had back at their own home, but this one was stocked full, half produce, half dairy. Mokuba pulled out some of the shelves to find a few unopened packages of bacon, sausage, chicken, and the like.

"Can we restock our fridge with all of this?"

"He might argue you taking it all," Seto said, "Besides, ours is about half this size."

"We could at least take all the sausage. Maybe the bacon."

"You'll have a heart attack at eighteen if you try eating like that. Our kitchen is fully stocked right now."

"Fine, but we're coming back for half of this stuff."

Mokuba checked inside the pantry before lifting his wrist again to head out into a hallway. The light stayed green until they got close to an open staircase heading down, which prompted them to turn back the way they had come. Mokuba didn't want to go back to the kitchen. He pushed ahead and into the room where the hall dead-ended.

The library spanned two floors. It was twice the size of the one Seto had built back home and more tightly packed. The castle didn't offer many windows, casting a shadow over the majority of the room that the overhead lighting couldn't overcome. They moved down the shelves, coming across sitting areas every few rows. Some of the household staff sat on the couches, glancing up when Seto and Mokuba passed and quickly turning their faces down.

"This looks like a movie set," Mokuba said. Being ignored by the staff didn't seem to bother him. He kept smiling and heading down toward the far corner. "We're going to spend so much time in here. Hide and seek! We can absolutely play hide and seek in here."

"Or," Seto said, pausing to think of something a touch less humiliating they could do to pass the time. "Scavenger hunt. It would take days to find the right book."

"That's better. We should find something to act like prizes."

"I guarantee you if you mention it to Pegasus, he'll make up prizes and play right along."

They did a lap of the library to make sure it was all within their limits, then moved on. Another door from the hallway opened into the entryway. There weren't any guards around and the light on the bands stayed green.

Mokuba headed toward the large double doors and Seto jogged to catch up with him. "What are you doing?"

"It's raining. If I can open the door, I can hear it."

The doors would be too heavy to open manually, and Mokuba must have realized the same thing. He went to the wall beside them first, where a series of light switches grabbed his attention. He flipped them all before  _hmming_  and then went to the other side.

"There."

He pressed the button and both doors groaned outwards. Mokuba reached out his hand, past the line where the doors rested closed, and waited.

It stayed green.

He turned to Seto. "It's green."

"I can see that."

"Check yours."

Seto held out his arm into the rain and waited. It didn't change. Maybe they just had some leeway so they wouldn't accidentally set it off?

Mokuba stepped out into the rain a few feet, then a few more. After a couple rounds of walking and pausing to wait on the light, he stood in the middle of the stone balcony, hands and face lifted to the rain.

It drenched him within seconds.

"Come on, Seto!"

"No thank you."

"Don't be chicken! It's just water!"

"It's going outside. He couldn't have meant for us to do this."

Seto looked back behind him, waiting for a guard to come move them back into an approved area. This must have been an oversight in the programming. No one came. There was a camera on the ceiling pointing to the door. Maybe no one really was watching?

Mokuba ran to the stairs and stepped back a moment later. "We can't go down!" he shouted over the rain. "It's green up here."

He ran back to the door and grabbed Seto's arm, ignoring his protesting, and tugged him into the rain. Seto turned his head down like that would protect him from the drops, but they rolled down his face in a moment. At least he didn't have the glasses to worry about anymore.

"It's February," Seto said, "Island or not, it's too cold to be out here."

"It's not that bad," Mokuba said. He cupped his hands together to collect the rain. "What's the worst that happens? I get sick?"

"You get sick and Pegasus takes the bracelets back. Let's go back in."

Mokuba tossed the handful of water at Seto, which there was no point in dodging since he was already soaked. The splatters hit him almost unnoticed with the heavy fall of the rain.

"We've already gone out. If he's going to get us in trouble, then there's nothing going inside will do."

"Where's your caution?" Seto asked, "I can't risk saying the wrong thing but you can run outside unsupervised?"

"It's raining! It's been almost two years since I've gotten a chance to stand out in the rain. And Pegasus allowed it!"

Seto tried to wipe the water from his face only to have more roll down. He checked his band again, still convinced that it had to be a mistake. It was the first day with the tracking devices and they were allowed to go outside just like that? Being able to wander around the castle already seemed like too much. If Seto was initially meant to spend two years in a dungeon, eleven months was too soon to be letting him out. In the early weeks, every extra day had seemed too long. These mind games shouldn't have taken hold so soon.

"It's going to be fine," Mokuba said. "He isn't going to make a mistake like this. It's fine."

Seto turned to look over to the side of the balcony where he had dueled Yugi, standing on the edge for the kid standing two feet from him. They had made it through that challenge. They would make it through this one too

And Mokuba was right. They were already drenched. They had already gone outside.

A few more minutes wouldn't make things any worse.

Mokuba dropped to the ground and spread out on his back, closing his eyes to let the rain hit his face. It had been raining long enough that the stone was covered in half an inch of water, deep enough it had already oozed through Seto's shoes. Even though he was thoroughly drenched, Seto didn't sit in the puddle. He stood over Mokuba, shaking the hair from his eyes before pushing it back altogether.

He shivered a little and tried to guess the temperature. Maybe somewhere in the sixties. Definitely cold enough to get them both sick if they stayed out much longer.

Seto spent the remainder of their time outside waiting for Pegasus or a group of guards to arrive. It took longer than he expected before the inevitable, "Brothers Kaiba!" came from the open doors.

Mokuba lifted his head and Seto glanced back to see Pegasus holding two towels. "You'll catch a cold!"

Seto offered Mokuba a hand a pulled him to his feet, sending a few drops of the splash it created up Seto's legs. Mokuba just grinned at it and held his palms up as they walked to the door. Mokuba shivered once they were out of the rain, in the air conditioning.

Pegasus handed them both a towel. "Playing in the rain in February. Honestly, you two."

"You live on an island! It's hardly cold." Mokuba said.

Seto patted his face dry before running the towel over his hair. His wet clothes were more noticeable now that they were inside, clinging to his arms and chest. The towel ended up just as soaked as Seto.

"This is a true shame," Pegasus said, and Seto braced for Pegasus's actual response to the venture outside, to them taking advantage of the tracking devices and leniency so soon.

Crossing his arms, Pegasus finished, "This rug was expensive."

_That was it?_

"Just buy a new one with the KaibaCorp money you're raking in," Mokuba said. He moved the towel across his shoulders while keeping his bright expression, regardless of the shivering.

"You're entirely too generous, Little Mokuba." Pegasus eyed the puddle forming at their feet for a moment before stepping over to the button on the wall to close the doors. While they closed, Mokuba stared out at the rain until it was shut off from his sight.

"Now, we need to get you two hooligans warmed up. Croquet's built a fire in the sitting room and prepared cocoa and coffee."

He had known they were out there and didn't come immediately. They took a risk and he didn't make any sort of retaliation? No, something else must have been coming, stricter boundaries, less time out of their room, removal of the tracking devices entirely,  _something._

Pegasus showed them to the sitting room and pointed out the couch nearest to the fireplace, where a pile of towels waited for them in addition to the ones already laid out to protect the cushions. Mokuba and Seto sat on the couch, taking a few towels each. Seto used his for their purpose while Mokuba used them like a blanket.

"Coffee-" Pegasus handed Seto a mug from a tray set up, "-Cocoa-" and a mug was handed to Mokuba, "-And a glass of wine for me because I didn't go gallivanting out in the elements."

"Maybe you should have," Mokuba said. He took a sip, followed by a too-large shiver. "It was fun."

"That well may be, but now we need to get to the consequences portion of the evening."

_There it was._

Pegasus sat on the couch opposite them and set his glass on the coffee table between. A hand gestured for Croquet to bring something over, but it was in another box so Seto couldn't see anything more than colors on the surface. Mokuba tensed beside him, still sipping at the cocoa like acting unaffected would lessen any punishment Pegasus would lay out.

"You two are not allowed to leave this room," Pegasus said, taking the box from Croquet, ratting the contents, "Until one of you beats me at a game of Connect Four!"

He pulled the game from the box and slammed it onto the coffee table, nearly knocking over his wine. "And let me tell you, I'm positively astounding at lining up four of these little tokens."

Mokuba grinned, clearly relieved, and put down his mug. "You're on."

"I'm always red, so you'll have to be black."

They got started and Seto stared down at the steady green light on the tracking device. Pegasus hadn't cared. They were allowed to go outside. He gave them more freedom than Seto ever expected to receive from him and didn't care when they abused it right off.

The claustrophobia hadn't faded.

They were still trapped.

Pegasus was just getting better at hiding it.


	51. Chapter 51

"Which one are you looking for?" Pegasus asked, leaning in to whisper to Mokuba, but still loudly enough for Seto to hear.

" _The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe._ "

Pegasus lifted a hand to mask the finger pointing in the direction of the book. He didn't mask it well enough, but didn't seem to care about the irritated glare Seto sent his way. He just dropped down on the couch beside him.

Seto stood to put the required distance between them. There were plenty of other chairs in the library Pegasus could have sat in without forcing Seto to move.

"Sit down, Seto. I'm lifting the arm's reach rule."

"Why?"

"It's tiresome and you're not going to kill me. Sit."

Seto reclaimed his spot and opened his book. "You know helping him defeats the purpose of the game."

"Each round of your game spans for days at a time. It's a big library. Let me help the poor boy."

"Then I am going to have to wander around more," Seto said, "And why do you suddenly think I'm not going to kill you?"

"Because then the guards would have to kill you all. You don't want that. I don't want that. It's too messy for you, little prince."

Seto turned the page and then realized he hadn't read the last one. There was no point in turning back to read what he missed, so he carried on from his current page like he hadn't skipped the last.

"I asked why you decided that now, not why I know better than to try."

"Ah, of course. It's been a month relatively untethered. If you were going to kill me, you would have."

"Maybe I'm biding my time."

Pegasus laughed softly and crossed his legs the other way. "The day you become a man of patience is the day I give up drinking. You and I both know you'll receive no opportunities and biding your time would be a lifetime. Can we just move on to the portion of your stay where you stop fronting your determination to escape? We've lapped a year, Kaiba-boy. We're stuck with each other."

Seto closed his book and set it on the arm of the couch. He glanced around for Mokuba, although he could have been a shelf over and Seto would never know the difference. He probably was more concerned with finding the book so he could stop making laps of the library.

"If I'm not going to try anything, then I shouldn't have to wear this bracelet," Seto said, tilting his wrist over so the green light faced Pegasus.

"But that makes it easier to track you down should I want to bask in the light of your darling company. You two are notoriously terrible at picking one location to spend your days."

"We're in here half the time."

"Or the balcony. Or the kitchen. Or the sitting room. Or the game room. Or the sky garden—have you made it to the sky garden yet?"

Seto shook his head.

"Mokuba would enjoy it. You might too. Who am I kidding? Everyone with eyes—or eye in my case—would enjoy it." Pegasus straightened his back and turned as if to look for Mokuba. "Little Mokuba! Come join us, would you?"

It took about half a minute for Mokuba to work his way back. Seto checked for the book and Mokuba caught him looking, holding up his hands to prove they were empty. "Couldn't find it. Did you hide it?"

"It's still on the shelf."

"Spine out?"

"Spine out."

Mokuba groaned and sat on the couch across from Seto and Pegasus. He crossed his arms dejectedly. "You know I've been looking for that book for two days now."

"I'm sure you'll track it down, little frog. But we have more important matters to discuss."

Seto and Mokuba both angled in toward Pegasus to see where he was going with the change in topic. He could have told them that he would be restocking Mokuba's paints and that would be the most interesting update they had received in weeks. As exciting as the first few days out of the room had been, nothing since had sparked any interest. The tracking devices didn't let them into any room with anything Seto could use for communication or to break into the mechanics of the tracking device itself.

"We have dinner plans tonight," Pegasus said.

"We do?" Seto said. It was Wednesday, so Pegasus should have been busy with one of the others, Téa, if Seto remembered. He ran through the list and nodded. She came before him.

"But group dinners are so much more entertaining than one-on-ones."

If Thanksgiving had been any indication, Seto would disagree, but Mokuba lifted at the prospect. "Really? With Yugi and Téa?"

"And our poor Ryou."

"Has that spirit been dormant or absent?" Seto asked. It had to be one of the two for Pegasus to trust nothing would happen. Even with the straitjacket on, the spirit could still cause trouble.

"Your concern for Ryou is touching, Seto. And neither. The Ring resurfaced this morning, so we should have a day or two of peace before he comes back."

"How's that work?" Mokuba asked. "Does the Puzzle pop back up around Yugi's neck?"

Pegasus shook his head before standing. "It's magic, Little Mokuba. Trying to explain it would be only a step easier than explaining how all those trenchcoats big brother Seto wore defied the laws of gravity."

Seto stood as well, just so Pegasus wasn't looking down on him with that amused glint. Mokuba followed and shoved his hands into the pocket of his hoodie. The material swallowed him, but Pegasus insisted it was the smallest size the brand sold in that shade of blue. Mokuba still liked it and wore it any time they thought about going outside.

"You were talking about a sky garden," Seto said. Any subject had to be better than the repetitive teasing.

"I was. How clever of you to remind me. Let's talk on the way to the dining room."

Pegasus led them through the bookshelves and out of the library. The dining room wasn't too far off, and they were still discussing the sky garden when they arrived.

"…You know how difficult it was to knock out the ceiling on a stone castle? Not just one ceiling, but the floor in between the rooms I wanted. And I had to add a retractable ceiling so it would close if it rains. Yugi-boy's made it to the sky garden, haven't you?"

Yugi glanced up from his conversation with Bakura. "I have."

"Our favorite set of brothers haven't gotten over there yet. Too busy in the library, I suppose."

Seto glanced over to Yugi's wrist, finding a tracking device on his, as well as Téa's. If they were both out, then that meant time without Pegasus eavesdropping. He had to set up listening devices in the upstairs library for the duel, so he couldn't have had them around the castle now.

"It's cloudy a lot this time of year, so it's a little hit or miss on which nights are good for stargazing, but late summer? That's the time to go. It hardly rains that time of year, so there's a much better chance."

Pegasus led them to the table, directing Seto and Mokuba to take the same seats they had at Thanksgiving. Yugi and Téa's positions had switched so Yugi was next to Pegasus, and Bakura was to Seto's right.

Without the use of his hands.

"Hello, Kaiba," he said, quietly, like he also realized that if he wanted to eat, it would have to be Seto who helped him with it.

"Bakura," Seto said, simply, like that didn't bother him. "He didn't cause you problems this morning?"

Bakura shook his head and shifted a bit in his chair. "Just talked. Walked around for a bit."

"I want us to start having dinner together on all of your nights," Pegasus said. He signaled for the food to be brought over and once again, offered wine to everyone but Mokuba. This time though, no one accepted.

"So five nights a week?" Téa asked.

"Excellent addition skills, Ms. Gardner. Though depending on that incessant spirit, we may not have dinner some Fridays. But then whenever Joey joins us, we'll add on Tuesdays."

"You want to have a group dinner every night then," Mokuba said.

"Except Mondays. But yes. It will be nice to have everyone together."

"And they'll have to eat food that's safe for my allergy too?" Mokuba asked.

"There is not a single peanut product on my island. Even in private rooms. I assure you."

Mokuba leaned back to let the server place a plate in front of him. A plate came around Seto at the same time, but a moment later, the server at least hesitated before giving Bakura his plate. Hoping the man would come to his senses would be a waste of energy, but Seto appreciated seeing that it made a staff member uncomfortable.

Seto committed the server's face to memory and turned back down to his plate in time for Pegasus to say, "Seto, you wouldn't mind giving our Ryou a hand, I'm sure."

The statement drew confused looks from Yugi and Téa, but Seto just nodded. If it seemed like it bothered him, then it would be harder to get through, for both himself and Bakura.

"Ms. Gardner just got her tracking device today," Pegasus said, "Do any of you have recommendations of places she should seek out?"

"The game room is nice," Yugi said.

"So's the balcony," Mokuba added.

"You can go outside with it?"

"Seto and I can. I thought we all have the same boundaries."

"You do," Pegasus chimed in. He thanked the server for his wine and took a sip from the glass. "Except for the private rooms. The balcony is open up to the steps."

Bakura clearly didn't have one of the tracking bands. Seto doubted that Pegasus meant anything negative by the subject choice, but after dinner, Bakura would likely be taken back to his room and locked inside. With Pegasus still antsy around the Ring, Seto doubted Bakura would be getting out soon.

He offered a bite while they continued talking about hidden spots around the castle.

"Things still going all right for you?" Seto asked. He kept his voice down so the other conversation wouldn't be interrupted.

"Tired mostly. There's not much exercising to do in there."

"Have you asked for space to exercise?"

Bakura shrugged, and the entire jacket lifted with the motion. "He knows I need to."

"Could still ask."

"And  _he'd_  reappear and I'd never get another chance."

Seto shook his head and took a bite of his own. "How is this not resolved already?"

"He carved out the Eye. That's not so easily forgiven."

"Anything you two want to share with the class?"

Seto turned to face Pegasus, the fork in his hand lowering before Bakura could take the bite. "Not particularly," Seto said. He fixed a different bite for Bakura and turned his back on Pegasus once again.

"Thick as thieves, you two," Pegasus said, then chuckled.

"How long does he have to wear that?" Mokuba asked.

"Unless I'm convinced there's no threat. Not from our Ryou, of course. But we can't account for that other one," Pegasus said. He scratched the side of his face and his hand crept toward his eye.

"I'm sure he and Mokuba wouldn't mind switching seats," Seto said, "If that would bother you less."

"It doesn't bother me a bit, little prince. I just think getting wedding bells out here might be a challenge."

Seto dropped the fork onto Bakura's plate and rubbed a finger against the corner of his eye. If there was a downside to having gotten out of the glass room, it was not being able to say what he actually wanted to for fear Pegasus would take it as a threat. Biting his tongue had gotten him this far. If Pegasus wanted to marry the two of them and it somehow led to them getting out, Seto would hardly argue it.

Mokuba could not spend the rest of his life here. Whatever it took to get free had to be done.

Looking back to Bakura, Seto rolled his eyes when he saw the change. Pegasus's teasing would come to a stop, at least. Although the alternative was likely far worse.

No one else had noticed, but Seto wasn't about to offer another bite. Handfeeding Bakura was an entirely different matter than his counterpart. And because of that, Seto switched out the fork in his hand to focus on his own food. Someone would notice the change soon enough.

"So where is the sky garden?" Mokuba asked.

"You know where the sitting room is," Pegasus said. He finished off his glass of wine and waved his hand for another. "In that hallway going out from beside the piano, there's a staircase heading up. You'll take it two floors. Down the hall-"

Seto tuned it out. Mokuba would remember them all, and even if he couldn't, they would end up searching until they found it or until Pegasus found them. The cameras probably lined the halls in that part of the castle as well.

"Now Ryou-" Pegasus started, then sighed. "Twice in one day is fairly rare."

The comment drew everyone's attention over. Mokuba leaned around Seto to get a look at the spirit occupying Bakura's body, face expressionless and bored.

"Be a dear, Seto, and take it off him."

The spirit said nothing and Seto followed suit. Pegasus couldn't keep up this treatment of Bakura, even if it meant hindering the efforts of this entity possessing him. He hadn't tried anything against Seto in the glass room and he hadn't so much as spoken since appearing at the table.

"Seto?" Pegasus prompted.

"Let him be," Seto said. He took a sip of his water and the surprised expressions moved his way.

"Excuse me?"

"It's not Bakura you need to learn to trust. It's him. If Bakura's fine with him taking over on occasion, you should get used to it."

"You're not calling the shots, Kaiba."

Seto chuckled and set down his glass, ignoring how tense everyone at the table had become, including the topic of conversation. At some point, these other prisoners would have to work out for themselves how to handle their own problems.

"I'm not. You've had Bakura in that jacket for a year now. You and I both know he deserves better."

Pegasus's eye narrowed and his fingers tapped along the edge of the table, calculating, debating, plotting. Out of everyone he had kidnapped, Seto assumed he had the largest grudge against the spirit, or perhaps tied with Yugi. Either way, if he could treat Yugi, the person who actually stopped him from resurrecting his wife, with respect, then he could tolerate the spirit possessing an innocent victim in all this.

"So long as Bakura is fine with him taking over here and there, you should try." Seto stopped talking only long enough to ensure he held Pegasus's full attention. "He can't stay like this forever."

"And you?" Pegasus said, eye twitching a fraction over to stare at the spirit. "Nothing to say for yourself?"

"His body is failing," the spirit said, "It would be a shame to let it die."

The laughter that followed echoed of Duelist Kingdom, shocking Seto's thoughts until all he could see was Mokuba, soulless, empty, dead.

He blinked and found Mokuba's hand in the same breath. His brother was alive. Pegasus had won but not with any finality. Mokuba was okay. His eyes would never look like that again.

"And here I thought you would silence me forever. Wasn't that it? Are the turned tables too much for you, petty thief?"

Mokuba's hand squeezed Seto's back.

"A shame for our poor little Ryou then," the spirit said. The smirk that came after should have been a sign for Seto to stop him from talking anymore, but he barely noticed it, too distracted by Mokuba. "He outlived your bride."

" _Enough!_ "

Pegasus was on his feet, hands slamming the table, clattering the dishes and silverware and nearly knocking over the vase in the middle. "Shut your fucking mouth!"

Guards moved forward. Guns raised. Mokuba pressed against Seto's side and clutched his hand tightly enough the sensation stopped entirely. But Seto wasn't too late to act this time. He picked up the signs and stood, leaning into the spirit's gaze.

"Leave. Now."

He did.

Bakura blinked before his eyes widened at the sight of the guns. While Pegasus fumed, Seto made eye contact with each man raising a weapon. There wasn't a threat any longer. To prove it, Seto unzipped the collar of the jacket and brought out the Ring, stepping back to carry it to Pegasus.

"This is what you want, Kaiba? For me to accept that animal with open arms?" Pegasus said, shouting into Seto's face.

"You asked me to accept the man who harmed  _my_  Cecelia," Seto said as he offered the Ring, "How much easier to accept someone who harmed you?"

The slap knocked Seto's face to the side, and he held the position long enough to let the reality of it settle.

"This is not the time you want to be right," Pegasus said.

" _Our_ Ryou won't speak for himself. You are killing him."

"Go to your room," Pegasus said. His voice was low with no traces of his typical humor. " _Now._ "

Seto nodded and backed away. Mokuba slid from his chair to follow and Pegasus made no comments about it. They left the room without another word, and before they were halfway down the hall, Mokuba cracked.

He covered his face while clutching handfuls of his bangs. Seto could tell by his breathing patterns that he hadn't started to cry, but he was certainly close.

"W-what was that?"

"Pegasus doesn't like being proven wrong, apparently."

"He hit you."

"You say that like no one as before."

Mokuba shoved him and then seemed to realized the irony of it. His laugh never quite reached anything close to amusement, but reflected more of the nerves spilling out. He shook his head several times and hung close to Seto.

"You're okay?"

"I'm fine, kid. He's just angry."

"Then don't get in the middle of it next time! He could have sent you back down."

"He won't. Not when I'm right. Okay? Look at me. We're fine."

Although he nodded, Mokuba clearly didn't believe him. Seto wrapped an arm around his shoulder and led him back to their room.


	52. Chapter 52

"—Because I was serious about wanting these to be standard. I think we can all agree that things were said and done that shouldn't have been, but that doesn't have to stop us from picking right back up."

"Will Bakura be there?" Mokuba asked. He leaned over Seto from the back of the couch, forearms draped over Seto's shoulder.

"He will be. Hopefully sans evil spirit. But should an evil spirit emerge during dinner, we'll handle it calmly and with no slapping. Scouts honor."

"Your word is so convincing," Seto said, "And you've gotten the others on board?"

"Maybe a foot on deck. But just like you and I, or me and you, little frog, had to learn to get along, we all have to coexist as a group. One unfortunate attempt can't hinder us."

"I mean, it can," Mokuba said.

"Then we shouldn't let it. Come on, you two! We've let this ruminate for a month. It's time to start moving forward again."

"You hit Seto."

"I did. And I'm terribly sorry about that." Pegasus leaned forward as if to intensify his eye contact with Seto. "You were right and I didn't want to hear it. There's no excuse for my behavior."

"It's not my forgiveness you need," Seto said. He uncrossed his arms and rested back on the couch, effectively putting Mokuba in Pegasus's focal point. "It's  _his_  brother you hit."

"That's true. I do owe you an even more sincere apology, Little Mokuba. Again, I have no defense but heightened emotions, and nothing to promise but that it won't happen again."

Mokuba stood up straighter so he wasn't leaning over Seto, but standing directly behind him. "So you admit it was wrong?"

"Full-heartedly. Seto was right and I was wrong. He was logical and I was rash. I was in err while he defended the helpless. Was that enough or should I continue expressing my apology?"

"Any longer and it'll just sound fake," Mokuba said. "I'm not okay with you hurting him."

"I never dreamed you would be."

Mokuba took a few seconds to think it over, even though Seto knew what his answer would be. "We are going to have to move past this."

"You heard him," Seto said. He got to his feet and glanced around for the shoes he'd toed off before settling in to read. They hadn't been leaving their room as much since the incident with Bakura, which was more comfortable than reading anywhere else. But Mokuba had been bored. The few times they had met up with Yugi in the library hadn't done much for entertainment.

"What time do you want us?" Seto asked.

"Ten minutes? I've got to round up Yugi-boy, and that can take a bit of effort."

"Next time, go to him first."

"But I had to apologize to you."

"It doesn't matter," Seto said. He spotted his shoes and walked to them. "We'll be at dinner."

"Excellent. I promise this one will be better than the last. We'll get into a routine. Grow accustomed to each other."

Seto waved him off to go get Yugi. The fact that Pegasus waited a month to reintroduce the idea of dinner came as a surprise, so he had been ready to return to Pegasus's games for weeks. Seto had almost convinced himself that they had lost their chance.

"I can keep being mad at him," Mokuba offered.

"It would be fruitless. We need everyone coexisting."

"I don't like that he hit you."

"A slap hardly stings. Be angry about it once we're back home."

"If we still have a home. People probably assume we're dead and sold it off."

"It takes years to declare someone legally dead if they're missing. Roland will be taking care of it."

"Here's hoping," Mokuba mumbled, and like Seto, started to put on his shoes. "I was too distracted last time to notice if the others had normal clothes yet."

"They didn't."

"Want to bet they will tonight?"

"I'm sure they will," Seto said. He ran his hands over his pants as he stood to smooth over a few creases. Now that Seto was on equal ground with Pegasus—or at least close to it—in terms of clothing, the minor adjustments would keep the visible power gap between them smaller. Though even if Seto had the full suits, he wouldn't wear them around every day like Pegasus did. The dress shirts and slacks served their purpose.

"It's going to be so quiet down there," Mokuba said.

He was right. Seto couldn't see any reason Yugi, Téa, or Bakura would chat to fill the lulls in Pegasus's conversation. It had only been a month, but seeing that Seto hadn't been sent back down after proving Pegasus wrong, the slap, and being dismissed had to be a sign that they could still talk.

"Make sure you're not," Seto said.

"What about you?"

"I never talk much in groups. I will when prompted."

"Can I prompt you a bunch?"

Seto exhaled in soft amusement. "I'd rather you didn't."

They clipped on the tracking devices left on the table by the door, showed them to the camera, and headed out. The same guard was stationed by the elevator, and after months of walking by him on almost a daily basis, Mokuba still hadn't gotten a name out of him.

"Hello, Mr. Guard. How are you today?"

The guard glanced over, but said nothing.

"Same as usual, then. Hope things pick up for you."

They waited on the elevator and stepped inside together. Mokuba scratched at his cheek while the doors closed, laughing to himself. "That guy must get paid a ton."

"To be stationed outside our room? Very likely."

"Let's add ex-military to his list. He's got to be."

"Probably."

"That's going to be a tough one to get through."

The doors opened to the main floor and they headed toward the dining room. Seto did his regular scan of the ceiling, counting the cameras and checking for any additions to security. Just a guard, standing by the dining room entrance. The guards had been inside the room last time, and Seto didn't remember passing anyone once they left, but it had been a stressful moment, and he hadn't given his surroundings the attention they needed.

"Assuming you're right," Seto said. Téa was waiting at the table, angled in to talk to Bakura, both in their seats from the time before.

But there were seven places set. The third down from Pegasus, on Téa's left, was a new spot. Certainly Pegasus wasn't ready to add Devlin or Wheeler into the mix.

"Kaiba, Mokuba," Téa greeted. She leaned back a little as if to give them space to sit across from her.

Seto turned to Bakura. "Has he kept his mouth shut?"

"For the most part. I did get to start exercising."

"That's good."

Bakura nodded. "I'm sorry you had to go through that to make it happen."

"Just because we're out of that room doesn't mean I want your apologies."

"Kaiba!" Téa said sharply. "He's just trying to offer—"

"It's fine," Bakura interrupted. "I know how he feels about apologies."

"But you've gone through-"

"He got me out of it," Bakura said.

"Not hardly. He was already planning to move you." Seto took a sip of the water already set out for him to take some of the intensity of Téa's stare away. She would only be useful in any plan he had by keeping Pegasus happy, or more likely in somewhat of a decent mood. There was a much higher chance of her ruining everything with the thoughtless comments or interfering in attempt at making something better.

Yugi came into the room alone. He took the seat to Pegasus's left and greeted everyone, then did a scan of the room.

He leaned as far across the table as he could without knocking anything over. "Did anything happen?"

"Business as usual," Seto said, then added, "Was he not normal around you?"

"But he didn't slap me."

Seto rolled his eyes and set down his glass, knocking it into the plate as he did and waiting until the glass echo died out. "He locked me in a glass display case for half a year. Do you really think I give a shit about him slapping me?"

"What display case?" Téa asked.

"His room wasn't like ours," Mokuba said, "It was much worse."

Bakura nodded.

"That doesn't change the fact-" Téa started, but she stopped when Yugi interrupted with, "Joey?"

They all turned to the entrance where Wheeler walked in, followed quickly by Pegasus. He was still in the black clothing, but he had clearly showered and shaved recently. He didn't seem as beaten as the last time Seto had seen him. His hands were cuffed together, but he wasn't in the dungeon.

Yugi and Téa jumped out of their seats and sprinted across the room to meet him. His smile to greet them was tired, but Seto doubted the others noticed. For as clean as he was, Seto didn't think he had been staying in the same dungeon room he had seen. Either that or Pegasus had taken the time earlier to let him get showered, then kept him somewhere while making the rounds. It was more likely that he was in a room with a bathroom.

"Let's sit," Pegasus said as he ushered them to the table. Yugi protested when Joey's seat was farther away than he would have liked, but Pegasus didn't offer to let them shuffle positions on that side of the table. Joey took the seat set beside Téa and nodded once at Seto before greeting Bakura and Mokuba.

"Does this mean he is getting moved?" Yugi asked.

"It doesn't, unfortunately. I just think it's time for us to start having our meals together, so Joey will be coming upstairs whenever we congregate."

The others accepted the statement at face value, but Seto stared at Pegasus for a few moments longer. He heard the threat for what it was.  _If you behave enough for group dinners, he doesn't have to stay isolated._

Even if the threat wasn't there, the others would comply. Seto himself would comply. Aside from the incident at dinner, Pegasus had been happy, likely thrilled that everything was finally coming together for him. Happy Pegasus let them get away with more things. The angrier he was, the more restrictive the rules became.

Everyone had to realize that.

"Now before we eat, I'd like to make a public apology," Pegasus said. He picked up his wine and stood, holding the glass in Seto's direction. "Our favorite brothers have accepted my most sincere regrets for the incident that occurred last month. And our Ryou has as well. None of you were to blame for what happened, and I'm truly sorry for the way I acted."

It seemed appropriate to nod, to show the people sitting across from him that Pegasus wasn't lying, or that if he was, Seto wasn't going to argue against it. Let Pegasus have his victory. Let him win every battle. Only the last one would matter.

And Wheeler could be a good tool if he kept his head down.

"Now, let's move on from this nastiness and onto better times. Joseph, you're of legal age. Would you like a glass of wine?"

"Nah, I'm good."

Everything about the way he carried himself, spoke, even blinked, read of exhaustion. His cuffed hands moved together to take a sip from his water and the chain from the cuffs dragged across his plate. The noise cut through the room, pausing the potential for conversation until his hands moved back down.

"Very well then," Pegasus said, then raised his glass to the table. "To a better tomorrow."

He reclaimed his seat and dinner began. Yugi and Téa's obvious focus was on Wheeler, checking to see how he was, how he had been, any details about his situation, really. It left Pegasus, Seto, Mokuba, and Bakura to eat in silence, but so long as Pegasus didn't mind it, Seto kept quiet. And he understood. If anyone had tried interrupting his time with Mokuba after the months of separation, he wouldn't have taken it lightly.

From the conversation, Seto gathered that Wheeler had been moved from the dungeon to a room on the same floor as Bakura. From the description, it sounded similar to Seto's setup in the glass room, only without the glass. But it had a bathroom, which was really all he seemed to care about.

They were halfway through before Wheeler turned from Yugi and Téa and up to Seto. "What about you, moneybags? Movin' up in the world?"

"High enough I'm not excited over a bathroom."

"Kaiba!" Téa snapped again, dropping her fork as if that made her offense more serious. "He just got out and has every right-"

"He's the reason I'm outta there at all," Wheeler said.

Yugi piped in with a "Really? You hadn't mentioned," like their monitored conversations in the library had given them a chance to talk about anything other than the latest book they had read or locations for the scavenger hunt Seto and Mokuba still carried on.

"Nothing to mention," Seto said.

And Wheeler snorted. "Just kicked some common sense into me."

Seto didn't have to look over to Pegasus to know how he took that comment. As far as Wheeler knew, what Seto had said to him was still a secret. He still should have known better than to address anything relating to the conversation in front of Pegasus. Seto must not have kicked enough common sense into him.

"Seto here has been remarkably more helpful than I think any of us could have anticipated," Pegasus said. He cut through his chicken and took a bite, somehow managing to do so with a presence that signaled he wanted silence until he spoke again. "Some of you should take note."

Bakura had been quiet throughout the meal, only thanking Seto for a few of the bites offered and saying nothing else. A quick glance at Wheeler helped Seto to determine why.

The others had all been around Bakura enough to see either Seto or Pegasus help him with his meals. It was new to Wheeler and his stare never dipped past disgust. Everyone else at the table felt the same about Bakura's treatment, but they at least had the decency to pretend it wasn't happening in front of them. Pegasus could have put straitjackets on all of them.

He could have done that to Mokuba.

"Where's Duke?" Joey asked.

Pegasus raised his eyebrow and sipped from his glass for a long moment. "In his room. Debbie Downer doesn't feel like playing."

"I guess letting him go's not an option," Mokuba said.

"Afraid not, little frog. Look at my full table. He's a threat to us all."

Mokuba nodded and went back to eating, but Téa had more to say on the subject. "You could at least let us see him."

"Ms. Gardner. Take a good look around you. I'm not being figurative. I want you to actually take a look. Do you see this full table? The man beside you whom you haven't seen in a year? A full plate? New clothing? How is it that you are still asking for more?"

Seto rubbed his eyes. It might have been the contacts burning, but more likely her idiocy.

"Because this isn't fair."

Pegasus laughed, an actual, full-bellied laugh that required him to put down his glass because it shook so strongly in his hand. "Of course none of this is fair. Since when is any of this fair?" It took several moments for him to tame his laughter enough to say, "Finish eating, you all. Let's have at least one meal without things escalating into absurdity."

She didn't seem to understand his point, parting her lips as if to argue further. Yugi elbowed her in the side to draw her attention, shaking his head. He couldn't say it, but Yugi knew. Pegasus didn't mean fair to them.

Because they killed his wife.

He was being more than fair.

Seto caught Mokuba's gaze, and Mokuba caught Seto's meaning. He turned up to Pegasus with his usual charming expression. "The sky was clear last night and Seto and I got to check out the sky garden."

From there, the discussion dissolved into one Pegasus would have wanted. Small talk, how they planned to spend their days living with him, in his home, as his life-long prisoners. Mokuba and Yugi played the part well, but Wheeler knocked Seto's foot under the table to get him to look over while he mouthed, "When?"

Seto didn't check to see if Pegasus caught the word. There were cameras and guards who could analyze everything Pegasus missed. Seto knew better than to think anything that happened would escape Pegasus's notice.

That determined it. Wheeler would be a problem, one Seto didn't know how to deal with.


	53. Chapter 53

Halfway into May, Yugi flagged them down in the hallway outside of the library. "Kaiba! Mokuba!" He jogged over to them and grabbed Mokuba's arm, pulling him toward the entrance before explaining what was going on. Seto followed after to keep up with Mokuba.

"We're all going outside. You two have to come!"

"Why?"

"We're getting to go down to the forest. And Joey can come if you two do."

Mokuba didn't need convincing. Seto walked behind the two of them and smirked at the height difference. It was easier to pretend Mokuba hadn't gotten any taller when they were alone since Seto stood a head over him, but next to Yugi, Mokuba seemed to tower.

"Is everyone else out there?" Mokuba asked. The double doors at the entrance already stood open and a soft breeze came through. The island weather had been a consistent temperature since they had been allowed out back in February, maybe only getting a few degrees warmer. Although Seto didn't want to give Pegasus credit for anything, the island weather was hard to complain about.

"Yeah, I just ran in for you two. Which if we're all congregating, he's got to let Joey come out."

Seto and Mokuba both lifted their wrists to check the bands before heading down the long flight of stairs. Mokuba tucked his book under his arm, then turned around to hand it to Seto. Even if they were joining the group, Seto would end up reading his own book while Mokuba spent time with the others.

"Pegasus!" Yugi called once they were more than halfway down and within earshot. "We're congregated!"

Pegasus, sitting on the bottom stair, turned around and waved. Croquet stood down beside him, or did until Pegasus said something to him, too quiet for Seto to hear from so far away. But Croquet bowed and headed off, not up the stairs, but to the side, likely one of the side entrances like Seto had used to get to Mokuba back during Duelist Kingdom.

The others were out in the clearing in front of the line of trees, Bakura leaning against a tree, straitjacket still on, Téa standing beside him holding a Frisbee. Yugi and Mokuba ran over to meet up with them, and Seto sat on the stairs across from Pegasus. He rested back against the stone railing and opened his book, holding the pages down to fight the breeze.

"Didn't expect you'd take him up on the invitation," Pegasus said. His hair was pulled into a loose braid over his right shoulder with pieces hanging out of it, and an empty wine glass sat on the stair beside him.

"He convinced Mokuba."

"Ah. Of course. Along for the ride?"

"Apparently."

"If you're going to sit here, we should chat. No point in you keeping your nose in a book this whole time."

Seto kept the book open, but looked to Pegasus. "Are you that bored?"

"Watching Frisbee isn't ideal entertainment."

Seto scoffed. "I'm sure you have more outdoor games than just a single Frisbee."

"Well yes. But I couldn't get anyone on board with bocce ball."

"They didn't want to play?"

Pegasus's eyebrow lifted with his lip. "Not with me. Let's not kid ourselves with lies of any personal connection."

"Isn't the point mutual trying?"

"Sometimes, Seto," Pegasus said, pushing his hands down his thighs and looking back toward the door Croquet had gone through, "-it's just easier to let people have their alone time. Today's a good day. I would hate to ruin it."

It was almost worth commenting on, but Seto let it slide because they were farther outside the castle than they had been before. This was a new step in the right direction and the others would have done well to take advantage of it by inviting Pegasus to join in their games.

And since they didn't, it would be up to Seto to make him feel included in something, even if it was something as simple as conversation.

"How's KaibaCorp?"

"Doing well. We're releasing that update to the duel disks—you remember, the added depths?—and once the hype from that has died down, the handheld game is scheduled for release."

"The stockholders' meeting went well?"

Pegasus raised his shoulder. "As could be expected. People have never taken me very seriously, and sending a proxy to everything hardly helps."

Seto heard Wheeler before he saw him, coming from the dungeon entrance, around the side of the staircase. He shouted out to Yugi, waving his cuffed hands and jogging ahead. Croquet followed after and reclaimed his spot beside Pegasus. But for all of them, except Duke, being outside, one guard and Pegasus was incredibly lenient.

"You need to set aside time to go to some of them. I'd think you'd know firsthand how easily a board can be convinced to turn on their CEO."

"You're so very clever."

The game of Frisbee picked back up. Téa, Mokuba, and Yugi were the primary participants, but Wheeler tried to play along as best as he could with the handcuffs on. They didn't toss it with as much force in his direction, but when throwing it toward each other, they put more strength behind it. Yugi missed more often, letting the Frisbee sail past him and into the trees.

Seto watched that more carefully than the situation should have called for because Yugi disappeared from sight every now and then. The limits on the tracking device must have allowed it, and Pegasus and Croquet hardly glanced after him when he ran off after the Frisbee.

"Regardless," Seto said, returning his attention to his book. "You should go to the meetings. You've run your own business. Just because this one isn't yours-"

"Calm down, cranky-pants. I'm taking your business seriously."

Sitting on the stone steps wasn't the most comfortable position, but the grass below was still damp, caught under the shade from the trees to trap in the lingering dew. There weren't any other options for him to move to other than hundreds of steps.

"His birthday is coming up."

Pegasus glanced over and nodded. "If you count two months as coming up."

"Because you don't?"

"Touché. Did you have something in mind?"

"He was supposed to learn how to drive."

Pegasus went back to focusing on the game with a quiet, "Mm." Most of his hair had fallen out of his braid, but he made no effort to retie it. He rested forward, elbows on thighs and face toward the game. "There's not a lot I can do about that."

"Can or will?"

A hand gestured to the forest in front of them. "Do you see a road for him to practice on?"

"What about a four-wheeler? Or a golf cart?" Seto said. "Something to mimic what the gift would have been."

"That's an interesting notion. Maybe clear out some paths through the trees, down to the beach and around the castle? I could get a set of two so he's not at it alone."

Seto nodded and bookmarked his page with a finger. If Pegasus was willing to go to such lengths for Mokuba's birthday, then he should at least have a bit more of Seto's attention. And Pegasus was probably more interesting than the game of catch going on or the book. Even Bakura seemed to be bored, watching from the opposite side of the short clearing. But he seemed more enamored of his surroundings.

This was probably his first time outside in over a year. Wheeler's too, Seto guessed. Both of them were still in some sort of restraint, but neither even appeared to notice it. Wheeler even used the chain to his advantage once, stopping the disk from slipping through his hands.

"That's cheating!" Mokuba insisted.

"We all work with what we got!" Wheeler answered, awkwardly sending it on to Téa.

"Is this what you imagined?" Seto asked.

"More than I expected, especially once you lot actually got here and started fighting."

"But you had told me two years."

"I expected more of a fight from you than I got. I still expect you to snap any day."

Seto watched Mokuba jump to catch the Frisbee before it flew over his head and knew that, at least in the way Pegasus was describing, that would never happen. The next stretch in the glass room would be sixteen months, so Seto would miss two of Mokuba's birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, the messy hair in the mornings, the growth spurt overtaking him, just getting to be involved in his life at all.

The risk would come not a moment before he was confident in it.

"It's a useless concern," Seto said. "Take your victory as it is."

"It's not a victory, Seto."

"I suppose not."

Seto went back to his book while the current game of Frisbee died down. Wheeler dropped out first, likely too tired from his limited activity over the last year, then Yugi, who joined Bakura in sitting on the ground. Mokuba and Téa carried on a bit longer before sitting down with the rest of the group.

Pegasus made no attempt to join them or talk to them, but just watched as they interacted. Seto glanced up from the pages occasionally, catches a few smiles and an equal number of frowns from Pegasus. Even if this was what he wanted, it wouldn't ever make him happy. He already mentioned they had exceeded expectations. How much more could they do to encourage positive moods before he caught on to the fact that justice didn't correspond with happiness?

"Can we explore?" Yugi called, pointing a finger in the direction of the thicker grove of trees.

"You can. Keep an eye on the lights."

Yugi and Wheeler went off together without needed any additional permission. Mokuba and Téa hung back to help Bakura to his feet, more interested in a patch of wildflowers visible in the opposite direction. They headed off that way, pausing only so Mokuba could invite Seto to go along with them.

He answered with a shake of his head. Chasing after flowers would forever be a task more appealing to Mokuba than to Seto, and someone had to stay with Pegasus. At least there were heavy clouds rolling in to run them all inside.

"You mentioned it never raining at a certain time of year," Seto said, gaze up to the clouds.

"We're coming up on the dry season, which honestly is half of the year, but it rains frequently from about February to June. We'll get the occasional shower the rest of the time."

"Are you expecting a storm today?"

"It's always hard to tell. There aren't weather forecasts out this way, so we usually have to settle for watching the clouds."

Seto checked on Mokuba through a gap in the trees. "That seems too inefficient for you."

"Maybe so. If any hurricanes are being tracked our way, we'll hear about it. But it's been years since anything more than a thunderstorm has crossed our path."

The book Seto had brought to finish wasn't engaging, but the one Mokuba had been working on seemed marginally less interesting. So Seto read a few more pages of the book in his hands, glancing up at the end of each page to make sure Mokuba was well within sight and not taking any unnecessary risks.

But Yugi and Wheeler had been gone too long. It might have been fifteen minutes or so, but that was fifteen minutes out of sight and earshot. Pegasus and Croquet both knew and said nothing, choosing not to act on the information, but Seto stayed attentive on that area just waiting for them to return.

They didn't.

It was Mokuba who ran up to the stairs next, hands cupped together as if holding a ball. He stopped in front of Pegasus rather than Seto and stretched out his hands a bit. "Hands up," Mokuba ordered.

"For what?" Pegasus asked, but his hands already had started to move.

"Get ready to receive and you'll see."

Pegasus gave Seto a hesitant expression, like he wanted a warning should Mokuba be trying anything he shouldn't. Seto had no way of knowing and was just as interested as Pegasus to see what was in Mokuba's hands. He watched on while Mokuba moved his cupped hands toward Pegasus. It had to be some kind of bug or insect based on the way Mokuba held it.

"Oh that's wet," Pegasus said, eye widening when it moved into his hands.

"Thought you should see what an actual little frog looked like."

Mokuba didn't stick around to see how Pegasus reacted. Grinning, he jogged backward a few steps before spinning and sprinting off in Téa and Bakura's direction.

Pegasus held his hands far out in front of him for a moment before drawing them in a little closer, parting a small gap between his thumb and index finger of the hand on top to take a peek at the frog. Its green head poked out.

"Would you look at that." He turned his hands to show the frog to Croquet, then Seto. "The little frog caught a little frog."

"You don't have to keep holding it."

"There's no harm in it. This little face is adorable."

"I'm sure it would prefer if you put it down."

"But it's already been displaced from its home. What are the odds that it will hop its way back?"

A few drops fell, splattering on the stone beside Seto and a little on his arms. A slight drizzle wouldn't drive anyone back inside, but the stronger the rain grew, the more likely Pegasus would want them to start the trek back upstairs.

"Want me to grab the wanderers?" Seto offered.

"Would you? This looks like it'll pick up in a bit."

Seto nodded and stood. He handed both books to Pegasus, forcing him to drop the frog on the grass by his feet and encourage it to jump toward the trees. With a comment about keeping the books from getting wet, Seto headed out after Yugi and Wheeler.

He ducked under the low hanging branches and stepped around the underbrush. The rain wasn't hard enough to break through and there were some signs of the direction they had gone, broken branches and footprints caught in the damp grass, so Seto followed the makeshift trail, farther than he expected they would have gone. It was far enough that he referred back to the light on his tracking device with every other step, certain the light would switch to red at any moment. It didn't, and he eventually caught a piece of hushed conversation.

Wheeler had a stick and was drawing something in a patch of dirt he'd found.

"—so if we can get Téa to help, then it'd only take a couple'a weeks to get this thing—oh, hey Kaiba."

Seto surveyed the scene carefully before coming to his conclusion. "You're idiots."

"We're getting stuff done, which is more I can say for you chatting with our warden," Wheeler said.

"Do you see where we're standing? The fact that you're not in a dungeon and you," he said, turning to Yugi, "-aren't moping at your window anymore? The fact that Bakura is outside even though the threat is still there? That I'm with Mokuba? Do you think those aren't steps in the right direction?"

"They won't get us home," Yugi said.

"Neither will building a raft. How moronic are you two? Coming down here won't be normal. You won't have time to build anything, let alone get it to the ocean and out of sight before he stops you."

"It's a plan."

"It's a death wish."

Seto stared at the rough outline of a boat drawn onto the dirt. These could not be the people he had to work with. There was only so much babysitting he could do to make sure nothing like this happened in the future and that Pegasus never caught wind of it.

"Seriously, Muto. You're expecting me to believe  _you_  think this will work?"

"If we go on a clear day, there's a chance a satellite or plane will see us."

"You're not getting a raft out onto the water. He's not going to let that happen."

"Then tell me what's your great and powerful plan, jerk bag. At least we're tryin' something."

"You're trying to get us all sent back to the dungeons. You just got out. Are you saying you want to go back so badly? To get your friends sent there too?"

"I've gotta sister waitin' for me," Wheeler said. He got to his feet, still holding onto the stick. "I'm getting th'hell out."

"This will fuck up everything."

Seto ran his foot over the drawing on the ground to smudge it out of existence. It would never work. Their plans would never work. Seto hadn't even found a plan that would get them safely out.

 _A raft,_  honestly.

"We're going through with something. You in or out?" Wheeler asked.

"No one is in. There is no plan. Pegasus wants you two back there, so go. Keep him happy until an actual plan comes up."

"Look. This is what we're going with 'cause nothing better is coming along."

How could they have so little sense? It wasn't just the two of them at risk, but everyone out here, all the progress that had been made. The only chance they had at getting out meant stopping them, but it wasn't like he could tell Pegasus. If talking them down didn't work, Seto didn't know what other options he had.

"Give me time. We just got some sort of freedom. It's workable."

"It's been a month," Yugi said, "Nothing's changed."

"Look at where you're standing. Everything has changed."

"And yet here we still are!" Wheeler said. "You ain't fixed a damned thing!"

Speaking of their location, they did really have to get back before Pegasus sent someone else after them. The sketch wasn't on the ground anymore, but they weren't being quiet. Anyone could overhear them, and judging by Wheeler's volume, it wouldn't be too hard to pick up the important bits from a distance.

Seto took a step back toward the castle stairs. "This," he said, pointing to the patch of dirt, "-will get you killed. The fact that you are breathing is a mere courtesy. Why don't any of you idiots seem to comprehend that?"

"Maybe we're just not so chummy with our kidnapper."

Holding up his hands, Seto gave his final effort. "Not now. This isn't the time."

"Then when's the time?" Yugi asked.

"Find a satellite phone. Win over a guard. Get him to remove the requirement for the tracking device. Make an actual plan that isn't this senseless. But for now, come back."

Seto walked off without another word or argument. He felt certain they would keep talking him in circles in he stayed. He could send Mokuba their way in an attempt to talk sense into them. He and Mokuba might have disagreed on a lot of their plans for escape, but they would agree on this.

The rain had picked up and dripped down through the branches overhead, and when Seto broke through the line of trees, he spotted everyone but Pegasus halfway up the stairs. Pegasus waited at the bottom, face lifted up to the sky. He only looked down when Seto got within a few feet.

"Everything all right?"

"Fine," Seto answered. He glanced back to watch Yugi and Wheeler come into sight.

"Are you sure?" Pegasus pressed.

"Yes. Everything's fine."

Pegasus nodded and greeted the others. "We should be getting back up. I'll have a dry set of clothes sent your way, Mr. Wheeler, Yugi."

Although Wheeler had come from the dungeons, they all walked up the stairs together. It was quiet save for the rain, no one willing to break the silence. They were drenched by the time they reached the top of the staircase, where Croquet waited with towels.

"I'm going to get cleaned up then. I'll see you all later on," Pegasus said, accepting a towel and heading toward the elevator. Croquet walked back with him a few steps, then nodded to something Pegasus said before coming to stand with Wheeler.

Seto decided to take the stairs, leaving Yugi and Wheeler behind because looking at them any longer might make him snap, and within the castle walls with the cameras keeping watch, it would be too much of a risk to talk to them any longer, especially since Wheeler had to be moved back to the dungeon. Carrying on a conversation with him might come across as stalling for something.

He met Mokuba in their room, halfway through closing the bathroom door.

"I'm going to shower," Mokuba said, a pile of dry clothes in hand. "Did you want in here first?"

"Go ahead." Seto paused by the door and took off the tracking device, leaving it on the side table with water droplets still on its surface. He debated less than a second about drying it off, but used the towel on his hair instead.

He stripped in his room and changed without showering, then carried the wet clothes into the kitchen to hang them over the back of a chair. He didn't know if Pegasus was going to come around for the wet clothing, and they hadn't been able to find a laundry room during any exploration.

Seto showered after Mokuba and they settled in to read on the couch.

"Today was weird," Mokuba said. He propped his feet up on the coffee table, nudging the stack of sketchbooks aside to make room for his feet.

"You handed Pegasus a frog."

Mokuba laughed. "Yeah I did."

"Did Gardner seem normal?"

"Stressed, mostly. Not as bad as she's been at dinner."

Seto had forgotten to get their books back from Pegasus, but he hadn't seen them when they were walking up. Pegasus must have given them to Croquet to put away before Seto had gotten the other two out of the woods. So he started on a new book.

He was two chapters in before someone knocked on the door.

"Who would knock?" Mokuba asked.

Seto shook his head and got to his feet. Mokuba hung back in the living room, but peered around the corner to watch Seto open the door.

A group of guards waited on the other side.

"You'll have to come with us, Mr. Kaiba."

"Why?"

They grabbed him. Mokuba screamed and ran forward, but Seto was already out the door and halfway to the elevator. He heard the door slam, the locks turn. He planted his feet and fought to work his arms free of their hold, but stopped when he spotted Pegasus watching with a neutral expression.

"What are you doing?" Seto asked. The moment he finished speaking, a piece of tape covered his mouth. The same hands moved to his eyes, prying them open and sliding out his contacts.

"Take him down," was Pegasus's only comment, followed by a fading blur of red.

Seto screamed after him, muffled and demanding even behind the tape. Pegasus didn't come back and the guards dragged Seto to the elevator, forcing him in and holding him still while the doors closed. He hadn't counted them, but hands were everywhere.

He knew the hallway they brought him to even through his blurred vision.

He doubled his struggles and they strengthened their grips.

The glass was up and the white room waiting. The moment they pushed him inside, they began to take off his clothes. They stood close enough Seto could see where they were, but kept him held down so he couldn't lash back. He had no choice but to let them replace his clothes with the black silk set he hoped to have never seen again.

"Your glasses are on the table," one of them said. They left Seto on the bed, only two of them holding him down while they started to lower the glass. The two keeping him down backed away at the last moment they could, before the glass was too low to duck underneath.

Seto ripped off the tape and found the glasses a moment too late. He moved to the glass and slammed his hands against it to no avail. It was locked in place. He was locked in place.

He tried screaming after them. Banging on the glass. Shouting at the camera.

But they walked away, speaker off, lights dimmed.

Seto turned to stare at the room, too familiar, too terrifying. It was empty save three books on the shelf, the same three that had been there from the start. The music player was gone. All the cleaning supplies, toiletries, everything Seto had built up while he was trapped the first time around, gone.

Pegasus promised sixteen months.

He was going to have to start over from step one.


	54. Chapter 54

Seto paced the same path he had walked thousands of times over. Bookshelf to bed to shower to bed to bookshelf to bed to shower to bed to bookshelf to bed to shower to—

Waving at the camera didn't get anyone to come down. Pegasus couldn't just leave him trapped without any reason why. There had to be an explanation. The only thing Seto could figure was that Pegasus knew what Yugi and Wheeler were planning and Seto had gotten mixed up in the blame.

If Pegasus knew what they were planning, then he should have known Seto discouraged them.

But Seto had encouraged other plans. Plans he knew would never work, but at least when he had told Wheeler to make plans before, he told Pegasus. He didn't this time because there was a plan in motion. But they actually had made some progress on gaining trust. They had been outside. He had been with Mokuba.

Seto stopped pacing to slam his hand against the glass again. The heating duct hadn't been reattached, so the room was frigid. He was too anxious to be bothered by the cold. Maybe the pacing helped, or maybe it was the nerves that pushed the cold to the back of his thoughts.

Bed to shower to bed to bookshelf to bed to shower to bed to bookshelf to bed to shower to bed to bookshelf to bed to shower to bed to bookshelf to bed to shower to bed to bookshelf to bed to shower to bed to bookshelf to bed to shower to bed to bookshelf to bed to shower to bed to bookshelf to bed to shower to bed to bookshelf to bed to shower to bed to bookshelf to bed to—

Pegasus came into sight beyond the glass and Seto ran up to it, waiting for the speaker to turn on. He carried a granola bar and bottle of water, but walked past the speaker and to the hatch.

It was opened and relocked before Seto could try speaking to him through it. The holes in the glass might have made conversation possible, but if Pegasus wasn't turning on the speaker, then he didn't want to talk. Step one was conversation. He had to let Seto speak to him.

But he walked out of sight as abruptly as he had come into it.

* * *

Seto lost track of the time. He had to assume it was the middle of the night, but the lack of windows, clocks, or anything to mark the passing seconds kept him from being more specific. He still paced the same line as he had been from the start.

What more did Pegasus expect from him? He discouraged the escape attempt, told them they were idiots. For the most part, he had taken Pegasus's side. Maybe he could have done more to turn them off the idea of escaping. He and Yugi had already established a code for communicating without Pegasus catching on. He could have used it instead of being upfront about encouraging other methods of escape.

The tracking devices might have had listening equipment inside. That could have been how Pegasus knew what the conversation covered. Or he had been better prepared than expected and Seto let his attention waver. Of course Pegasus wouldn't just let them go off alone. He had been ready and waiting for them to screw up.

He couldn't keep Seto in here for another year and a half. The time promised was longer than the total time they had been trapped. This room was escape-proof. And once he got out after the promised sixteen months, Seto doubted he would be willing to take any sort of a risk.

Mokuba would be sixteen.

* * *

Pegasus came into sight again with another bottle of water and granola bar. Seto stood, having sat on the edge of the bed to wait, and watched while he slid the next meal through the hatch door. He moved out of sight again, but before Seto could sit down, returned with the same chair he had used for eight months, putting it in position before turning on the speaker.

"Good morning, Kaiba-boy."

"Why am I here?"

Pegasus raised his eyebrow and sat down, gesturing for Seto to do the same. So he did, sitting on the edge of the bed, legs tense and ready to jump back up.

"Why do you think you're here?"

"You think I was involved in those morons' plan?"

The distorted laughter shouldn't have been so familiar after all this time. It had been over half a year since Seto had gotten out. Now that he was back, it felt more like a day.

"Then what?" Seto asked. "You must have heard the whole thing."

"How do you think I kept up with the tournament all those years ago? I have cameras everywhere."

"I didn't do anything."

"That's the problem, little prince. You didn't do a single thing."

Seto ran his fingers back through his hair, hand brushing his glasses and leaving a smudge on the surface. "Then what?"

"Don't you remember our agreement? You get out when I feel I can trust you. You lied to me. Twice."

"Everything was fine. They weren't going to go through with it."

"But maybe they would start searching for a satellite phone, or start convincing me to remove the requirement for the tracking devices. What was the other one? Win over a guard? Luckily I don't have to worry on that account. They would never turn on me for fear of the consequences."

Seto took off his glasses to try rubbing the smudged lens clear. "Getting them to stop meant throwing other options as a distraction."

"You didn't tell me."

"Is that what you want from me? To spy on them and report back to you?  _Fine._  I'll do what you want."

"I need to trust you, Seto. You've proved that I can't."

"I fucked up, but I can't stay down here any longer. Think of Mokuba."

"Ah yes, the littler little prince. He's capable of throwing quite the tantrum. He's probably still up there pounding his fists and breaking things. You know he's already pulled down all the cameras in your suite?"

Seto shook his head—of course he didn't know that—but had to ask, "You're letting him get away with that?"

"I've ripped his entire world away from him. To be fair to myself, it wasn't something I had hoped to have to do. Of course he's panicking."

It could have been a combination of the cold and the nerves, or maybe the stress and anger, but Seto had to pace again. He didn't include the bathroom as a part of his lap, but just went bed to door to bed to bookshelf to bed to door to bed to bookshelf to—

"Tell me what I have to do to get back up there."

"Regain my trust."

"I can work on that upstairs. Not telling you something is hardly worth this."

"You lied. Flat-out."

"And I said it wouldn't happen again. One fuck up and you're imprisoning me again? No explanation? No chance to make it right?"

"Honestly, without the music punishment you've reverted to such a crass tongue." Pegasus got to his feet and brushed off his pants. "I suppose that means all I can do is walk away. Good night, Kaiba-boy. We'll try again tomorrow."

Seto jumped to his feet and ran to the glass, but Pegasus had already pushed the button. It didn't stop Seto from hitting the surface with as much force as he could, streaking it with prints of the side of his fist. Pegasus had to be able to hear him from the other side regardless of the speakers, but he walked out of sight, lifting a hand over his shoulder to give Seto a departing wave.

* * *

"Good morning, Kaiba-boy."

"You've made your point."

"What exactly is my point?"

Pegasus reclaimed his seat after giving Seto his breakfast and taking out the wrappers and empty bottles left for him. It was an actual meal this time around, the same toast, eggs, and bacon Seto had seen on so many of his days in here. Pegasus had used the same white plate. White plastic fork. Even the cup in the bathroom was the same one.

"I lied. I lied about something more serious than my favorite color or what was on my mind. I betrayed your trust. It won't happen again."

"That's all true. But let's say it did happen again? Letting you out now would only teach you that begging changes my mind."

"I'm not a fucking dog. You can't train me—"

"That's my cue to leave. I'm serious, Kaiba. Watch your mouth."

* * *

"Good afternoon, Kaiba-boy."

Seto kept pacing and scratching the side of his face. He hadn't taken the time to shave that morning. He hadn't cared to take the time during the day. What was the point? Pegasus wasn't letting him out again. He would never need to shave again because this was where Pegasus wanted him. Seto had known that from early on even though he hoped to have never been proven right.

"Let's not be like that. Come. Sit. I'm sure there's still plenty about your childhood left to discuss."

"We can discuss that in the suite upstairs. With Mokuba in the next room and no glass walls caging me in."

"You have to stay in here, little prince."

"Because I didn't tell you they were planning to build a boat? Or was it really because I encouraged other plans?"

"It's because I have to be able to trust you."

Seto rolled his eyes and turned to start on his six-hundred and fourteenth lap since he started counting. He was sure that if he had been left socks, the trail he walked would have been black already. But it was white, just like everything else in sight but him and Pegasus.

"You can trust me."

"Prove it."

"There's an inch of glass stopping me from it."

"All the glass stops you from doing is running about conspiring with my other guests. You're safe in there. No chance of messing things up any more for yourself."

"And Mokuba's unreachable. You've taken so much of his life from me. Not again. Don't do this."

"My my," Pegasus said, crossing his arms and leaning forward a touch. "Someone's desperate."

Seto glared through the glass, and then at the glass. Of course he was desperate. Thinking of Mokuba's screams as he was dragged out was really all it took to reduce Seto to the point of begging. He wasn't even too proud to admit that was what he was doing. Mokuba needed him and the only way to get back was to convince Pegasus to lift the wall. If promising trust didn't do that, begging was all Seto had.

There was no more time for games. No strategies. No plans.

Mokuba's screams echoed through every second.

"You once said we understood each other because I have Mokuba. Think about what you're condemning us to. He's all I have. I'm all he has."

"And because of you lot, you lot are all  _I_  have. So you see how I can't have you running about conspiring against me."

"Then plant listening devices on me. Embed the tracker in my arm. Lock me in the room upstairs."

Pegasus looked around his feet like he had dropped something, checking to either side before asking, "Did you want me to bring the chess set back down here?"

It was Seto who walked off that time.

* * *

"Good afternoon, Kaiba-boy."

"Why wait three years to bring us all here?"

"It took some self-convincing. Imagine deciding to move me into your home and take care of me like part of the family."

"This is how you treat your family?"

"My family's dead. You killed her."

He left without leaving Seto's dinner.

* * *

"Good morning, Kaiba-boy."

"It's been a week. How long do you plan on keeping me here?"

"How long did I say I was?"

Seto pulled the blanket a little more tightly around his shoulders. He hadn't had to go this long without the heating duct the first time around. Seven days and six nights of the numbing cold had put an end to the pacing. Half of his time was spent in the shower, running through Pegasus's hot water supply just to keep warm. But getting out only made him colder.

Every day hadn't really gotten better before, but there had been progression the longer he went. Now there was no chance for progression, only the cold, the boredom, and Mokuba's echoing screams.

"This isn't justified. If I had actually done something, I wouldn't be able to argue. But I didn't do anything."

"Exactly. You didn't do anything."

"You know that's not what I meant."

"And when I said you were free to wander my castle, I didn't mean for you to take advantage of my generosity."

Resting his head back against the wall, Seto closed his eyes and replayed that day in the woods again. He should have told them no without planting false plans. He should have told Pegasus something, anything, to at least make it seem like he wasn't lying. He could have said they were drawing pictures, acting like fools, causing a problem someone should check on. He had options that wouldn't have been lies.

Pegasus probably would have thrown him back anyway.

"How long were you looking for an excuse?"

"An excuse for what?"

"To store me back down here."

Pegasus laughed, not loudly or even in amusement, but something close to disbelief. "What on earth possessed you to think I want this for you?"

"You built it for me."

"I also built the rooms upstairs. Put a library near to your suite. Spent weeks searching for the tracking devices and getting my house wired for them. You have to be on my island. Aside from that, I don't want you anywhere."

"Then move me upstairs."

"Should I bring Clementine down here? You two would be such good friends."

Seto adjusted the blanket and pulled his feet in a little closer. The feeling in his toes had disappeared hours before. Once Pegasus left, he would have to run another shower to regain sensation.

"Are you ready to get back to actual conversation?" Pegasus asked. "I've missed it quite dearly."

"I will describe to you in detail all the gruesome elements of my past if you will just let me out of here."

"Tempting. I'd actually rather talk to you about this-" Pegasus paused and looked up and down the hall. "Shoot. Give me a moment." He headed back toward the elevator and left the speaker on, so at least Seto knew he was coming back. But when he came back, it was with a stack of books.

"Did you want these back? I haven't kept up with how your studies came along."

His vision blurred over the image of the same French textbooks he had read through dozens of times before. Pegasus was actually starting him over from the beginning. None of the time before this had mattered. How had he let Yugi and Wheeler fuck everything up for him?

"Just go."

"All right. I'll see you tonight, Kaiba-boy."


	55. Chapter 55

Two weeks.

Two weeks had gone by with no change, no heat, no books, no compromise. There was nothing left to offer Pegasus or to promise. This was it. He was stuck in this damned room again and wouldn't get out unless Pegasus decided to be generous. And since it was Pegasus, Seto knew it would never happen.

Seto leaned his head back against the wall and stared at the ceiling, blanket pulled tightly around him. Each breath was heavy and long. Seto's feet bounced both for a release of anxiety and to keep them from numbing. His hands had to fidget because when they stopped, his fingertips stung. He had adjusted somewhat to the cold, so it didn't have such a great effect on him, but he hadn't gotten to the point of being comfortable.

Pegasus came into sight and Seto hardly glanced over. The speaker crackled.

"Good afternoon, Kaiba-boy."

Seto closed his eyes and kept moving his feet and fingers. It was a better focus than Pegasus.

"Nothing to say to me? That's a shame. I plan on having a very serious conversation with you and it will be difficult if you're silent the whole way through."

The hatch door opened and Pegasus took out Seto's plate from breakfast but didn't replace it with anything. Seto watched tiredly and couldn't decide if he cared about missing another meal. He probably wouldn't have eaten it anyway. Keeping up an appetite didn't seem worthwhile.

"Talk to me and I'll give you contacts."

"What good would that do me?"

"Talk to me and I'll let you see Mokuba."

Seto traced his tongue along the edge of his teeth. "Fine."

"Marvelous. How are you feeling today?"

How was he feeling? How was being imprisoned again? How was he handling the start of a year and a half away from Mokuba? How was he handling being punished for the simplest of lies? How was he after a mind-numbing two weeks?

"I'm cold."

"We'll see if we can take care of that in just a bit. Let's talk about your lying."

"It was hardly a lie."

"Seto."

The reprimand knocked out Seto's breath in a reason he didn't understand. It was just his name. He was behind the glass, locked away, and there wasn't anything else Pegasus could do to him. But he was probably wrong in that regard. There was more Pegasus could punish him with if he wanted to.

"It won't happen again."

"That could be another lie for all I know."

"Fine the Eye. Scan my head. I don't care."

"If that search had any promise, I might bank on it. But alas, over a year of searching has turned up nothing. So then, we need to find a way to ensure we are both honest with each other."

"You care to be honest?"

"I don't have to be," Pegasus said. He stood and took off his blazer, a thin layer of sweat breaking out on his forehead. "I'm trying to be honest for your benefit. At least for direct questions."

Seto moved to face Pegasus a bit more head-on, switching to rest his back against the wall by the headboard and keeping his feet up close to him. Moving meant sitting on cold blankets and having to readjust the temperature by staying still. He had the time for it. He had all the time in the world.

"So are you keeping me in here for another fifteen and a half months?" Seto asked, figuring it was direct enough.

"That will depend on you."

"Then it might be longer?"

"Are you saying you're planning to return to the vain fighting?"

"You're offering less?"

Pegasus shrugged. "Are you ready to talk?"

If Pegasus decided to take a week off Seto's sentence for every topic of conversation, Seto would search endlessly for new subjects. He didn't know what talking would actually accomplish, but the potential for less time had his attention. Pegasus wouldn't let him miss Mokuba's sixteenth birthday. Although his decency was limited, he did have some.

But celebrating his birthday two years in a row with a wall of glass between them? It wasn't fair. Mokuba deserved better than this. He hadn't done anything wrong, even if Seto had. Pegasus had to realize he was punishing the one person actually making an effort to go along with him, a person who really didn't carry any of the blame for Pegasus's plan failing.

"I don't know how to ensure you can trust me."

"Let's work through what led to the lie in the first place."

It was as if Seto was a child being scolded. The answer wasn't complicated. He didn't want Pegasus to assume they were trying anything. He didn't plan on them trying anything. If it was up to him, everything would have been fine. Taken in that context, he hadn't lied at all.

"I knew you wouldn't like the truth. I hoped to avoid discussing it."

Pegasus nodded in exaggerated solemnity. "That much is clear. But you could have just thrown out a statement, 'They're right behind me,' or, 'Ask those two.' Instead you chose to lie for them. I think that's what I find most odd. Why would they prompt you into something you've been avoiding?"

"What are you taking about?"

"You've been avoiding anything escape related. Not letting yourself search for exits while you walk down the hall. Filling me in on conversations I can already listen to. Not lying to me for the sake of it. Then three minutes in the supposed privacy of the woods and you abandon it all for those two? It seems unlikely."

"It wasn't supposed to be a lie."

"No?"

There wasn't any point in trying to defend himself. Pegasus would keep him in however long he wanted to and no amount of honesty would change his mind. But there was also no reason to keep information to himself anymore. Maybe something, something small, would trigger an earlier release.

"Everything was going to be fine because they weren't going to do anything. I wouldn't have let them."

"You're not calling the shots around here."

"No, but one word would have ended their plans if they were stupid enough to continue on with it."

"It probably would have taken more than one word. What would the one word have been? Boat? Escape? Stick?"

"It's an expression."

Pegasus smirked. "You would turn on them so easily?"

"Mokuba is my priority. I don't care what you do to the others." Seto paused for a moment before asking, "I never found out what you did to them," even though asking mostly disproved his previous statement.

"To Yugi-boy and Mr. Wheeler? They're back in the original rooms. Same as you."

Seto shook his head and continued bouncing his feet. An equal punishment? If Pegasus watched the exchange, then he had to know they were far more guilty than Seto. And Wheeler's original room wasn't even a dungeon, but a room upstairs like Mokuba had been kept in at the start. The least Pegasus could have done was put Seto into the room Mokuba had been in. He did not deserve the worst of the punishments for a half-lie.

"You seem upset about that," Pegasus said.

"That you gave me the worst of the punishments? How dare I?"

"Oh, don't be like that. I think we both know Mr. Wheeler won't last much longer in his original room. I'm impressed he's made it two weeks."

Pegasus glanced over toward the elevator for a moment, almost short enough for Seto to miss it, but his hair carried the movement on long enough for Seto to realize someone else was standing out of his sight. Croquet never seemed to be too far behind Pegasus. He might have been there every time Pegasus came down and Seto had just never known.

"This isn't what you wanted to talk about," Seto said.

"You're right. I want to discuss how you and I can trust each other after this. Although," Pegasus said, pausing to start braiding his hair to the side, "You should have started off your stay down here with your defense that it wasn't supposed to be a lie. Waiting two weeks makes it seem less likely."

"Would that have changed anything?"

"I doubt it. But it's useful information."

"But nothing that would change the duration of this round of imprisonment."

"You know what's funny? That you refer to this as imprisonment. Is the alternative freedom?"

Seto hadn't caught on to how his sentence had come across, but understood Pegasus's full meaning. Being behind the glass did feel like being kept prisoner. And even though he still was a captive outside the glass, it hadn't felt that way except on rare occasions. It was easier to avoid thinking about when Mokuba was nearby and Seto could take care of himself.

Still all under Pegasus's control, but it had felt different.

"The alternative is better."

"You're right. This feels so artificial now."

"And it's still what you plan to stick with?"

Pegasus laughed. "You don't like me at all, do you?"

There was no way to respond to Pegasus except by refusing to respond. Seto had at least hoped they had an understanding before. They had been making this fucked up situation work, but actually liking him? Of course not, but the understanding had felt like enough. It wouldn't be anymore.

"You did nothing to deserve another year of this."

 _That_ got a reaction from Seto. The fidgeting stopped along with his breaths. The cold wrapped around him and kept him from jumping to his feet and demanding to be let out if that was the case. Although Seto knew it was true, hearing Pegasus admit to it made it all the more real.

"And you're still keeping me here?"

"You did lie to me. I can't have you lying to me. I have to be able to trust you."

"I don't know how many more promises I can make you."

"I don't need anymore promises from you. I think this can all be resolved if you simply talk to me more. Assume I have to know every little thing that happens in or around my home. Help me make this easier for you."

Seto nodded. "Okay."

Pegasus smiled and got to his feet. "Then I suppose that's all I have to say about it," he said, walking out of sight as if to leave even though it hadn't been fifteen minutes.

The glass creaked.

Seto forgot the cold and pushed off the bed, almost tripping on the blanket wrapped around him, but managing to get to the glass in time for the blast of heat to break through the gap where the glass was coming up. It was hot enough to almost burn his feet. The temperature outside could have been the reason the cold had been more tolerable. Seto hadn't adjusted; Pegasus adjusted the temperature outside to come through the holes in the glass.

Once the glass was halfway up, Seto ducked under and into the hallway.

Mokuba collapsed into him almost immediately, breaths coming out too fast for anything to be said. They both ended up kneeling, Seto's legs too weak from relief to remain standing and to support Mokuba's weight thrown against him. Mokuba's fingers grabbed onto Seto's shirt so tightly Seto thought it might rip.

"See, Little Mokuba? Just like I promised."

"What did he promise?" Seto asked, whispering to Mokuba.

"Two weeks."

"When did he promise that?"

"After I ripped down the cameras."

Then Mokuba had known almost the entire time that Seto wouldn't be locked away for a year. Pegasus brought him down to prove it to him. Mokuba would be okay. This wouldn't have been as traumatizing as Seto had worried it would be.

"Come on, brothers Kaiba. We can have dinner upstairs."

But they weren't ready to move. Pegasus never told Seto this time around how long he would be behind the glass. The sixteen months was a number from long before. Seto had made the assumption and Pegasus let him believe it. These two weeks were a scare tactic. And it had worked.

It took a few minutes to get Seto and Mokuba back to their feet, and then a while longer to get them moving. Seto couldn't face the white room behind him again. He couldn't go back into it for anything. Two weeks had nearly broken him, which he wanted to say was because he expected a year on top of it. If he had just known it would be two weeks alone, then he might not have taken it so hard.

"I promised Mokuba we'd make brownies," Pegasus said, heading back for his blazer, "And I might have snuck some ice cream into the last order."

Mokuba kept his hand in Seto's while they moved slowly to the elevator. Seto's steps were still uneasy. Even though they were walking away from the glass room, his mind kept insisting he was walking into something worse. He couldn't fathom what it might have been to put his paranoia on such alert. He was out again.

_Is the alternative freedom?_

It wasn't, but Seto simply thought of it that way. He had talked himself into thinking he had gained some sort of freedom outside the glass. And even though he realized his mistake, there was no way to fix it. The only way to keep himself from being put back behind the glass was to keep believing his own delusion.

Nothing was going to come along. No escape. No rescue.

Pegasus accounted for everything.

They stepped into the elevator and Seto stared at the doors as they closed them in. He couldn't look for an escape plan because Pegasus would see. Pegasus saw everything. He didn't have any options.

It was learn to live with Pegasus or don't.


	56. Chapter 56

"What'd you get me? You can't keep me waiting, Seto!"

They kept walking after Pegasus toward the staircase. Mokuba couldn't decide between grabbing onto Seto's arm or running excitedly ahead. As soon as he heard that they would be celebrating his birthday outside, Mokuba had refused to stop bouncing from Seto to Pegasus, desperate to know what the present would be.

Seto almost wished the cameras in their room had been put back up. The tape from Mokuba's excitement would have been worth keeping around, even if it had faded a bit once Pegasus arrived.

"Patience, Little Mokuba. Brother Seto and I have put together quite a day for you."

"So just tell me now!"

"We'll tell you when we get down there," Seto said. He played absently with the tracking device while they walked. Maybe they would get more rooms eventually, but as best as Seto had been able to tell, this was the limit of their freedom, and he would have to learn to make do with it.

They would figure out how to live with it. It was just another change, another obstacle in their lives. They had to readjust every few years in the past. If they could just view this as another change, then they could learn to live with this setup.

"Down where? Come on, Seto. Please. Please tell me!"

"That face isn't going to work."

At the base of the stairs, Mokuba started checking out the windows, although he wouldn't be able to see anything this high off the ground. He probably wouldn't catch onto what the present was until they had gotten halfway down the long staircase outside. But the extent of it wouldn't be obvious until Pegasus pointed it out.

"I can't even wait any longer. Is it a game? Are the others going to be there?"

"All that I can get," Pegasus said. "Croquet and a few of the other members of my staff wanted to join in." Pegasus looked back over his shoulder and grinned. "I might have gone overboard with the cake."

"Is it chocolate?"

"Possibly. Why don't you hang out here for a moment? I'll make sure it's all set up for you?"

Pegasus stepped outside and left Seto and Mokuba in the hall. Mokuba watched the door close and leaned against the nearest wall, eyes shut and tight. His hands shook at his side.

"You okay?" Seto asked.

"Just need a second, you know? Got to keep up the smiles."

He forced one then, too fragile to have ever seemed honest. He wiped at his eyes even though he hadn't been crying. Two heavy breaths later, Mokuba opened his eyes and blinked away the exhaustion. His timing was almost perfect, Pegasus walking in a few moments later.

This time, Mokuba's smile seemed much more realistic. "All ready for me?"

"It is, little frog. They're all waiting outside for you."

Mokuba grinned and grabbed Seto's hand with more force than the situation called for. His arm bumped against Seto's as they walked through the door, following after Pegasus onto the balcony. He pulled Seto forward to look over the edge, and Seto made sure to hold him back a bit to keep him from falling over the edge.

"What's that? I see a bow on—is that a four wheeler?"

Hand still in Seto's, Mokuba ran down the stone staircase, but had to stop to catch his breath halfway. Pegasus caught up in the same moment that Mokuba decided he was ready to run again, tugging Seto down the stairs with him. Seto doubted the timing was accidental.

Rounds of "Happy Birthday!" greeted them when their feet hit the grass. Téa and Bakura stood together over by the set of four wheelers. The house staff Pegasus mentioned was over by the fold-out table with desserts set up on it. The cake stood at five layers, wrapped in a Blue-Eyes made from icing. A tent had been set up over the table to keep the sun at bay, fans blowing under so the icing wouldn't melt.

"Hi guys!" Mokuba said. He made Seto go with him to greet Téa and Bakura. The straitjacket held Seto's attention. It had been too long, far, far too long. There had to be a way to get that off of him. It was something to keep in mind after the festivities were over.

"You're almost as tall as I am!" Téa said. "You'll outgrow me in no time."

"You've seen my brother! I'm going to be taller than everyone."

"Oh, I doubt that, little frog."

"My voice has changed. I don't sound like a frog anymore," Mokuba said. He crossed his arms as if annoyed, but Seto caught his hands still clenched into fists, mostly hidden against his chest. He would need to be distracted before he forgot about the two weeks back in May that Seto had been locked in the glass room.

Pegasus hadn't mentioned it other than a casual, "Forgive and forget, Kaiba-boys."

Mokuba had done neither.

With his hand now free, Seto stepped back and listened to just how much Mokuba's voice had changed. He sounded so much older, so much more matured. His grin was still young, the little dimple in the dip of his cheek clinging to the last bit of baby fat left on him. He was all limbs, too tall and lanky for his weight. Seto had been too at that age, but he didn't feel like it had showed as much on him.

"Okay, Little Mokuba, I'll drop the frog comments. But you haven't even acknowledged your gifts!"

"Oh yeah! Are those four wheelers?"

He ran over to the matching set, royal blue and wrapped with a big red bow. He ripped off the bow and tossed a leg over the nearest one to him. Mokuba didn't know how to drive it, but clutched the handlebars anyway, smiling largely enough that Seto knew it was forced. That hurt, since they weren't really a gift from Pegasus.

"You can thank our Seto for these," Pegasus said, stepping over to him. "He picked them out and made sure I cleared out paths for you to drive. You know that brother of yours worried you'd trip over a branch or something? Maternal instincts, that one."

"Really, Seto? You picked them out?"

"Sorry it's not the car."

Mokuba shrugged and leaned forward like he was mimicking the action of driving. "But this is really cool. Can I go now?"

"Well, Mister I-read-the-manual-so-I-could-teach-him-to-drive?"

Seto rolled his eyes and had to uncross his arms. The only way to get the manuals had been to ask for them from Pegasus, so it wasn't like there was any way to play off not knowing how to drive one. Seto didn't want to ride one in front of the others. Maybe if he thought of it like a motorcycle, it wouldn't be so bad.

"I want to go, Seto! Hop on! Are they ready for us?"

"You think I'd give you a present that wasn't ready for you?" Pegasus asked. He waved Seto forward. "If only I thought you would let me get away with snapping a few photos."

"No time! I want to use my presents."

Seto settled down on the other four wheeler and talked Mokuba through the instructions. Téa hovered nearby to listen in after calling dibs on the next ride. Bakura hung back by Pegasus, who "would no sooner climb on one of those death traps than abolish cartoons."

Pegasus called after them once they were on their way down the right side of the carved-out path. "Be careful! Watch for low branches! Don't forget that poison ivy—" He kept shouting until they were out of sight.

Seto let Mokuba ride out ahead of him so he would be able to see if there was a problem. But Mokuba took to driving it easily, cutting sharp turns and going off the path a couple times. Seto didn't follow off the path, but stayed where he could see Mokuba without needing to worry about watching the trail.

It broke out onto the beach and Seto checked the tracking device just to be sure they were still in a safe area. He doubted that Pegasus would construct a trail they couldn't follow, but he hadn't thought Pegasus would throw him back in the glass room for such a simple lie as he had told.

The light stayed green.

"We never would have done something like this back home," Mokuba said. He drove a circle around Seto, sticking to the rocky sand, before stopping beside him, facing the opposite direction. They both left their four wheelers idling.

"I would have taught you to drive in an actual car."

"It wouldn't have been the same. This is so—I don't know how to say it— _freeing_  is the word that comes to mind, and that can't be it."

With a light shrug, Seto let go of the handles. "We're outside. Mostly unrestrained. Out of earshot even if there are probably still cameras."

"Am I too used to this, Seto? If I get used to living here, how will I be able to go home? Adjusting back will be just as hard."

"I don't know if I'd go that far," Seto said, glancing past Mokuba and to the ocean behind him. Somewhere out there was an escape, or at least, there had been—might have been—at one point. Even though Seto could take off the tracking device and make it to the water, what was he supposed to do once he got to it? The boathouse was completely in his sight, but Pegasus would have accounted for that, posted guards or made certain the boats were inaccessible.

Seto couldn't try anything because he would get sent back to the room where even the option was taken from him.

He looked back to Mokuba. It wasn't much of an option anyway.

"You probably shouldn't swerve so much while driving," Seto said.

"It's fine. I figured this thing out quick."

"I don't want you to flip and break your neck."

"I won't. Let's not forget you've never done this either."

"If I can drive a motorcycle I can drive this."

"Well I'm a Kaiba, so I'm clearly amazing at this already."

Mokuba started moving again, driving a few laps around Seto as if that proved his point about the needlessness of worrying. Seto let him show off for a few moments before getting his own moving, scanning the tree line for the break where the path picked back up.

It was lined with red balloons.

"What an eccentric host we have!" Mokuba shouted back over his shoulder.

Seto shook his head and followed Mokuba back into the forest, and this time, Mokuba kept to the path, but that was likely because of the balloons lining it the entire way down. Seto let himself be distracted by them as well and nearly missed the dirt pile in the center of their path.

Mokuba took it first, an amused exclamation slipping out, and Seto followed soon after, although silently. Three more of the dirt mounds were in their way, growing progressively larger until the last one resulted in leaving the ground entirely on the descent.

Soon after, the path opened up again, having looped back to the tent.

"What'd you think, Little Mokuba?" Pegasus asked once they had parked. "Seto a good driving instructor?"

"He wants me to drive too safe."

"That doesn't sound like how he drives."

"How would you know how I drive?" Seto asked. He climbed off the four wheeler and stepped away since Téa was bounding for her chance and Mokuba was ready to go again.

"This took a lot of preparation. Maybe if you drove more slowly, you'd notice people tailing you."

Seto had to talk Téa through operating the four wheeler once more while Mokuba drove back and forth across the clearing at the base of the staircase. Pegasus seemed to take the constant motion as excitement, but Seto figured it was more an excuse not to have to fake happiness in front of Pegasus.

Seto sent Téa on her way and she disappeared down the path right after Mokuba, Pegasus shouting after them once again with pointless advice.

Bakura had taken a seat under the tent and beside one of the fans. Seto joined him.

"It's strange to see him so old," Bakura said. "Part of me is still convinced he's the kid he was the first time we were all here."

"I'm still convinced he's three and building sandcastles, following me around and kicking at my heels."

"It must be nice to have him around, not as a prisoner, of course. That's not what I meant. But, you know, you can see him every day. Talk to him. Watch him turn into an adult."

Bakura stared out ahead, although there was nothing in that direction for him to be looking at. The combination of the straitjacket and the vacant expression read wrong, like Bakura was far more broken than his words indicated. The fact that he could still function with relative normalcy came as a constant surprise to Seto, who didn't know if he would be in a similar condition had he received the same treatment.

"I can't decide if this would be easier with or without him," Seto said. "I change my mind on it daily."

With a nod, Bakura blinked and came back into full awareness. "You would take more risks with him gone."

"Risks might get me killed."

The guards and house staff who had come down gathered around to play bocce ball, and Pegasus stood with them, loudly ensuring they knew all the rules. He didn't give a single glance back to Bakura and Seto, sitting alone under the tent. Seto wondered if that was a sign of trust or if he had other people keeping guard and keeping him informed.

"Dying might be better."

"You don't have anyone waiting?"

"Have anyone?" Bakura said, lips pinching together a little to one side. "My dad. I doubt he's waiting."

"Has Pegasus mentioned starting school next month?" Seto asked for a quick change in subject.

Bakura nodded, shifting uncomfortably in the metal folding chair. Seto debated mentioning the chairs to Pegasus to see if it would make him send for padded ones. But it would end up taking too long to get them outside since Seto knew Pegasus wouldn't bring out another set of smaller chairs, but likely armchairs, or something else too gaudy to be necessary.

"Hopefully you can teach me without making me write anything down."

"We'll figure something out."

_Like a way to get you out of that thing._

They kept quiet until Mokuba and Téa came back around. Pegasus waved them down before they could do another lap, and then ran over to Bakura. He knelt down in front of him and started unbuckling the clasps keeping Bakura's arms secured.

"What are you doing?" Bakura asked.

"Letting you have your turn. Tell me how your arms are feeling. Up to the task? Or do I need to talk Seto here into letting you ride on the back of his?"

The straitjacket came off and Bakura slowly stretched out his arms. Pegasus had been allowing him more time out to exercise and to make certain he didn't lose use of the muscles, but Bakura only wore a thin t-shirt underneath and Seto could see how frail he had gotten. He wouldn't be able to turn the handles.

"I'll drive," Seto said, before Bakura had to admit to being too weak. "Only once though."

"Okay, now, you don't have on one of those tracking devices," Pegasus said. He turned to Seto and fixed him with a serious look. "Bring him back."

Seto didn't respond, but helped Bakura over to the four wheeler, getting him on before following. Mokuba grinned, this one a much more honest smile than before. A couple strands of hair stuck to his forehead, shining and dripping with sweat. It didn't seem to bother him.

"We're going to stop on the beach!" Mokuba shouted to Pegasus. "Be back in a few!"

"Helmets!" Pegasus exclaimed, just before they started off again. "I didn't get any helmets and there they go driving off about likely to smash their heads—"

Neither Seto nor Mokuba had intentions of hanging around for Pegasus to finish his thought and ban them from the next lap. Bakura had to get his turn before they were stopped for the day. He had clutched his arms around Seto from the moment they were both seated, and tightened his hold once they were off. His hair whipped at Seto's neck while they sped down the rough path, and the short gasping breaths hit Seto's ear.

By the time they hit the beach, Bakura could hardly contain himself.

"Is this what riding a motorcycle is like? It's practically flying!"

"Motorcycles typically have a smoother path," Seto said, coming to a complete stop while Mokuba rode another lap around on the sand.

Bakura let go of Seto and stepped off the four wheeler, stretching again and walking around unsteadily. The sand gave with each step he took, but that just made him smile. "I never thought I'd get out of that hole."

"Mokuba! Don't go too far!" Seto shouted. Mokuba looked over his shoulder and raised a hand to acknowledge he had heard, driving a few more yards ahead before turning around.

"I'm surprised he let us out at all," Seto said.

"He told me why we're here," Bakura said. "Said you have known for a while now."

"Going on a year."

"Aside from cheering on Yugi, I didn't do much against him," Bakura said. He scratched his head with a too thin arm. "I'm here because of  _him_. I went through that hell because of  _him_."

There wasn't anything to answer to that. Seto couldn't explain away Pegasus's lunacy. He couldn't offer apology for something he had been no part of. He couldn't offer empathy because his situation hadn't been nearly as horrible as what Pegasus put Bakura through.

"How did you get through?" Seto asked for lack of a better reply.

"We took turns."

Bakura laughed. Then he grabbed his hair again and screamed. The scream turned Mokuba around again. Adding another person to the conversation would have made it more difficult, and Mokuba backing out was for the best.

"For so  _fucking long_  I fought to keep him out of my head, out of my body. Now I'm begging him back, pleading to anyone who is out there listening to just keep me out of my own head. Let him have me. Anything to get out of the darkness, out of being treated like a doll."

Bakura dropped his hands. "You know the worst thing? I can't even hate him anymore. He was fucking there for me and I needed  _him_. This demon who has tormented me and hurt me, hurt my friends,  _hurt my family_ —I needed him." The hands came up again, this time with palms raised to the sky as if demanding an explanation from, as Bakura had phrased it, any deity who would listen.

"You know Pegasus told me I was innocent. That I'm only here because of him? And what a fucking  _joke_. The reason I'm here is the one reason I'm not mad!"

He started crying and Seto didn't know what to do for him other than to let him vent out all he needed to. Pegasus probably had ears in the area, but it was one of the only times Bakura had been relatively free and able to rant.

"How is any of this fair? If I had done anything—anything!—wrong, then I might be able to tolerate this as fate, but I haven't done anything. What did I do to deserve this?" he demanded, hands still screaming at the sky.

Seto stepped off the four wheeler and wrapped an arm around Bakura. Now that Mokuba had grown, hugging Bakura felt the same as hugging Mokuba, almost the same height, weight, and such similar hair. It wasn't hard to picture Mokuba in his place, being punished for Seto's actions and raving about what was fair.

Bakura sobbed into Seto's shoulder. The angry ranting melted into apologies—"I'm so sorry for yelling at you. It's just all this. I'm so sorry, Kaiba. This is too much. I can't anymore."—and Seto let him cry, staring out at Mokuba who had stopped to watch.

"One of these days you'll listen to me and stop apologizing," Seto said.

Bakura's laugh this time was much softer. His next inhale was sharp to clear some of the crying and he stepped back to rub his eyes. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

At Bakura's silence, Seto added, "I'm serious. Not a word."

"Right," Bakura said, almost letting a laugh come through. "I'd never."

"Good."

Mokuba drove back up pretending like the breakdown had never happened. He didn't act as cheery as he might have in front of Pegasus, but Mokuba had always been able to adjust his actions according to what was happening around him. There was no reason to act like everything was fine until they were back within Pegasus's sight.

"We ready?" Mokuba asked. And when Seto checked with Bakura for confirmation, Mokuba added, "You warned him about the hills, right? Come on, Seto. You have to've told him about the hills."

Traces of red across his cheeks were all that remained of Bakura's outburst once they had gotten back to the tent. Like Seto predicted, Pegasus stopped them from riding again until he had invested in helmets. He apologized again and again to Mokuba, who clenched his hand into a fist while assuring Pegasus that three laps around had been enough for the day, and couldn't they go ahead and have some of the cake?

Although the cake was multiple tiers tall, Pegasus insisted that Mokuba could have no more than two slices. "You'll get sick, Little Mokuba!" he had exclaimed. "And who wants to be sick on their birthday?"

Mokuba's expression had answered for him. ' _It's_ my  _birthday._ '

But Mokuba had taken a deep breath and pushed his plate away. Everyone else, including the staff, had a slice, and one of the women who helped make the cake began to wrap up the rest of it. Pegasus asked Seto to monitor how much of it Mokuba ate, because the last thing he wanted was for Mokuba to end up sick from it.

Mokuba's fingers tapped on the table in uneven motions. He rested his cheek on a fist and watched the cake get packed up. From his spot beside him, Seto could see a piñata being brought out behind Mokuba. Two of the guards hung it over a branch and Seto shook his head. The movement distracted Mokuba from the cake and prompted a "What?"

Seto gestured over with his chin. Mokuba turned and sighed.

"I'm fifteen."

"Now then, fifteen isn't hardly as dramatic as that tone suggests."

"When Seto was fifteen, he'd already started running KaibaCorp."

"Luckily for us, you don't have such a heavy responsibility on your back," Pegasus said. One of the guards who had been hanging the piñata approached Pegasus with the stick, which was then offered to Mokuba. "Birthday boy gets first swing."

"Let's play bocce ball," Mokuba said. He stood up but had the stick handed to him again. "I don't want the piñata."

"You take yourself too seriously," Pegasus said, but he did put down the stick. "There's nothing wrong with staying young while you can."

"Maybe I don't want to stay young at all."

His voice had dropped from the tone he used when interacting with Pegasus. This one was much more genuine, thick with frustration and anger, coated in a fading self-control. His fingers tapped at his thigh and he didn't move from his spot.

"All children feel that way. It's only once you've grown you realize what you missed out on while reaching ahead."

"Are you ordering me to stay youthful and energetic?" Mokuba asked, the self-control fading too quickly.

"Of course not," Pegasus said. The louder and less controlled Mokuba's voice became, the calmer Pegasus's grew. "I'm sure Seto would agree with me on this. Right, Kaiba?"

"Mokuba—" Seto started.

"Damn it!" Mokuba said, "I don't need you both telling me how to behave!"

The world skidded to a stop.

Oxygen came in and out, but it hardly helped to catch Seto's breath.

His chest tightened.

_Damn it I don't need you._

"No, Seto," Mokuba started, somehow already turned to face him. "I didn't mean it like that."

_I don't need you._

"I'm sorry. I didn't—"

"It's okay," Seto said, standing. "I know what you meant."

Mokuba was never supposed to grow up like this. His own words from over a year before echoed back, thunderously loud and rolling on and on, " _Mokuba doesn't deserve this. You don't deserve Mokuba. Mokuba doesn't deserve this. You don't deserve Mokuba. Mokuba doesn't deserve this_ —"

Seto cupped Mokuba's cheek lightly, thumb tracing that dimple. "Happy birthday, kid."

And he headed back to the castle alone.

_I don't need you._


	57. Chapter 57

Sweat had broken out along his arms and neck by the time he reached the top of the stairs, still alone, thankfully. Someone must have kept Mokuba back, probably Pegasus actually doing something right for a change. The time alone Seto needed might be hard to come by without Pegasus's help.

But he would follow soon. Seto was sure of it.

Since Seto had on a tracking device, Pegasus would meet him wherever he ended up, and that location had to be somewhere Mokuba wouldn't think to follow. Because of the situation, Seto assumed Pegasus would extend the boundaries once he was with Seto, and that made up Seto's mind about his destination. He made his way to Pegasus's office, standing outside in the hallway at the end of his leash.

_I don't need you._

Seto closed his eyes against the words. It wasn't what Mokuba had meant ( _it was what he had said_ ). That wasn't the point Mokuba had been trying to make ( _his actual point wasn't any better_ ). It had just been a tense moment ( _haven't all the moments been tense?_ ).

Seto pinched the bridge of his nose like that would help him concentrate on clearing his head. Could a person concentrate and not think at the same time? It sounded like the general idea of meditation, although Seto didn't think he could ever be proficient at that sort of thing.

_I don't need you._

The words refused to leave. What could he possibly do with that little sentence fragment that he was certainly taking out of context? Mokuba was just tired of being told how to act, nothing more.

_I don't need you._

The more Seto heard the words, the more the tone shifted. It bubbled and built into something darker, more resentful and hurt than Seto was certain the original words had been. They sounded wrong that way, even with Mokuba's deeper voice, it didn't sound like him.

Had he been faking all this time with Seto too?

By the time Pegasus's footsteps clacked toward him, Seto had talked himself in and out of that line of thought three times and was working on his fourth. Mokuba was getting older. He wouldn't need Seto forever.

"You've left Little Mokuba devastated on his birthday," Pegasus said when he stepped up to Seto. "That hardly sounds like you."

"Let's talk in your office."

Pegasus nodded and made a quick call on a walkie talkie he pulled from his pocket—"Open my office for Kaiba-boy, would you?"—and they stepped inside, light green.

"Vodka?" Pegasus asked as he walked around the side of his desk. Seto nodded and Pegasus brought out two small glasses and poured from a bottle. Seto accepted the glass offered to him but didn't drink from it right off.

Pegasus sat beside him on the couch. "His act, while splendid, couldn't hold up forever."

"You're asking for the only forever we have."

"I'm not going to complain that he tried. He's been trying, or at least trying to pretend he's trying. I've been trying. This is all very trying," Pegasus said, putting the glass to his lips but not taking a sip.

"You think Bakura's innocent."

"I'm glad you're not too proud to comfort him. He needs someone I can't be for him."

"How is Mokuba any more guilty than Bakura?"

"Bakura was hardly present during my tournament. He's guilty of wanting me to lose. He broke into my tower, but that hardly bothered my plan."

Seto drank half his glass and took a moment to let it settle. "Mokuba was ten."

"And you were sixteen, just like the others. Actually, were you fifteen, about to turn sixteen?"

Seto shook his head because it didn't matter how old he had been. What mattered was "Mokuba wasn't calling his own shots."

"Be that as it may," Pegasus said quietly, "He kept KaibaCorp out of my reach long enough."

"Did Leichter, Johnson, Gansley, any of them ever tell you how I took over KaibaCorp?"

Pegasus crossed a leg over his other and rested in the corner between the back of the couch and its arm so that he could face Seto a little more head on. "You were given money and told to make more from it. You bought out companies and blackmailed them into paying you more than they were worth to get them back. You used the money to buy out KaibaCorp."

Seto nodded and took a little sip, hardly a sip, of the vodka. "I couldn't buy enough of it. I already had two percent of the shares, but only forty-seven percent was available."

"I haven't heard this part."

"It's not something I advertise. It had been years since the adoption, years of living with Gozaburo. I let myself grow distant from Mokuba."

Pegasus frowned. "Is that what you're worried is happening now?"

"Just listen."

Was that what was happening again? Mokuba had been getting more and more distant ever since Seto got out of the room back in October, but since the two weeks in May, Mokuba hadn't been so far. They were just having disagreements, not drifting.

Seto ran his finger over the rim of the glass to regain his attention. "Mokuba had two percent of the shares. I needed Gozaburo to think he had Mokuba's two percent."

The memory of tossing Mokuba aside assaulted him and replayed again and again. The hurt in Mokuba's eyes, the heartbreak, confusion, all the bottled up emotions from the past years pouring out in that one look. That look had been worse than the soulless stare when Pegasus had paraded Mokuba in front of him at Duelist Kingdom.

"We don't talk about that anymore," Seto said, forcing himself to shake off the memory to get to his own point. "But Mokuba took Gozaburo's side long enough that he thought he had the fifty-one percent needed to keep me from taking over. Of course Mokuba defected and joined me. I won," Seto said flatly.

"This ties in to Mokuba's innocence somehow?"

"I'm getting there."

Seto finished off his drink and declined an offer for a refill. "I don't know if Gozaburo was in my head or if I had just lost myself. Maybe some of both. But I assume you've heard about Death-T?"

"Bits and pieces."

"Enough, then. I know it seemed insane, too elaborate, too horrible, but it was the same nightmare I had every night since what Yugi did to me. I had to understand the heart of the cards or some nonsense, and apparently the way to make me understand was to have monsters kill me again and again." He paused in reflection of the absolute absurdity, then went on. "I needed him to understand what he did to me over a card game. I didn't play fair and he killed me hundreds of times, but I could only kill him once. The once had to matter."

"You don't have to tell me this."

"I'm getting to a point. Mokuba—" Seto took a breath with his name because this part of the story never should have happened. "—wanted to be involved. It wasn't his fight but he offered his help and I didn't force him out of it. You know the different levels?" Pegasus nodded. "We bet on which one would kill Yugi. I bet that Mokuba would die. My fucking plan involved him dying and he still wanted to help."

His hands shook around the glass and he put it down before he dropped it to shatter across the floor. "I  _knew_  Yugi would make it to the final level and I knew Mokuba would die. I still. let it. happen."

"Seto—"

"I'm not done. Obviously Mokuba didn't die and Yugi won. You of course know what happened after. He crushed my mind and left me in a coma for half a year. That's where you came in."

"Whose innocence are you trying to prove with this?"

"I'm not innocent. I clawed and scraped my mind back together and you know what it all amounted to? Mokuba. And you had him."

"It's a shame these events had to line up," Pegasus said. "I needed KaibaCorp and it was left up for grabs."

"I will never be able to explain why Mokuba stuck with me. I didn't deserve it. I put revenge ahead of him, tossed him aside for what I needed. And he still wouldn't give you the key. He still wanted to protect me."

"He loves you."

"He shouldn't. I do deserve this. I deserve whatever hell you want to put me through. But Mokuba was an abused and broken kid who just wanted to make his fucked up brother love him again."

Pegasus uncrossed his legs and put down his own cup, still just as full as when he first poured it. He put an elbow on the arm of the couch so he could cover the lower half of his face with a hand. "What are you saying to me, Seto?"

"I'll take whatever guilt you attribute to the ten year old desperate for his brother's approval. If I had been there, he wouldn't have been involved at all."

"You want me to let him go."

Seto nodded.

"You know I can't do that."

"Do you still think he's guilty? That he deserves to have his life stolen because he got stuck with me?"

"I have been looking for almost a year and a half now for any way to let Mr. Devlin go. It's just not possible."

"You agree Mokuba's innocent?"

The hand came away with a heavy breath. "I do."

Seto closed his eyes.  _Just breathe_ , he told himself. If Pegasus could admit to that after everything, then there was still a chance for Mokuba.

"Let him leave. Let him come and go if he wants. I'm sure you'll have people around him. If he tries to tell anyone where I am, move me. You'll have enough notice."

"I'd rather not give up my home."

"Move all of us. You'll have an hour at least before anyone can get out here and you can just call Mokuba a traumatized kid and move on. But besides," Seto said, turning away to trace the circle of his empty glass, "Mokuba won't say anything. I'll talk to him."

"You two have the closest relationship I've ever seen between two people," Pegasus said. "He's not going to let you stay if he thinks he can save you from me."

"I'm agreeing to stay. If you want to lock me up like you did Bakura, I won't argue. Let Mokuba go."

"I don't want you locked up, Seto."

"You know he's not going to leave if you give him the option," Seto said.

"Maybe kicking and screaming," Pegasus agreed. "But you would still stay even if he chose to?"

"He just needs the option to go."

"I'll make the arrangements," Pegasus said. He stood and grabbed his glass. "It may take me a few days to get my people in place."

"You're serious?" Seto asked, speaking as slowly as Pegasus had been. It couldn't have been that easy to convince him to let Mokuba leave, not after all this. No matter how innocent he decided Mokuba was, to just let him go because Seto agreed to stay felt wrong. The words Pegasus followed with didn't help. He spoke too carefully, like he was still trying to convince himself.

"I've conceded his innocence. I love his company and it will be sorely missed, but if there is a way to let him go and keep you here, it wouldn't be fair to let it slip by."

"You'll let me tell him?"

"Of course. Would you mind me being there for it? He'll want confirmation."

Seto shook his head. "That's fine. But not today. I'll need a spare room for the night."

"It's his birthday."

"I need a night."

Pegasus took a moment to stare at Seto, eyebrow raised skeptically. After all of that, agreeing to let Mokuba free, wanting a night to himself was what Pegasus found to be the most confusing.

Seto would have to get used to it. If Pegasus followed through on his promise, then Seto would have to stay the rest of his life.

Willingly.

"Okay, Seto. One night." Pegasus checked his watch, keeping his glass tilted up so nothing spilled. "You've got a few hours before it gets dark. You can spend the rest of his birthday with him and just sleep in a separate room."

"We have separate rooms. I'll catch him in the morning, if that's fine."

Pegasus was still slow to agree to the request, but he did in the end. The agreement was accompanied by a reminder, "You still need your things."

"Mokuba still outside?"

"Of course not. You walked out of his birthday party. He's waiting in your room."

"I don't suppose you would run the errand for me."

Pegasus knocked back his glass in one go, widening his eye like Seto had asked to borrow a phone. "You're asking me to play mediator between you two?"

"I'm asking you to go get my glasses and contact case."

"But then I'll have to be the one to explain where you are and why you aren't coming back."

"Since when do you have to explain yourself?"

Pegasus started to argue and then stopped. "Okay," he said, stepping forward to set his glass on the table beside the couch. "That's true. But Little Mokuba is going to be demanding, you know. He'll think I'm keeping you from him or some other absurdity like that."

"You'll figure something out."

"Oh yes,  _now_  you have such confidence in me."

Pegasus shook his head and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt to his elbows. It would have made more sense for him to have done so outside to combat the heat rather than wait until he was indoor under a vent. Maybe it was part of the eccentricity. Seto didn't care to ask.

"I'm serious. Only one night," Pegasus said.

"That's fine."

Seto stood and left his glass beside Pegasus's. He was sure someone would come for them.

For the glasses, but not for the prisoners.

Blinking away that thought, Seto followed Pegasus out of the room. He wanted to hear the conversation between Pegasus and Mokuba, to make sure that Pegasus couldn't make up any lies, not about this.

Seto leaned against the wall down the hall from the entrance to their room, out of sight should Mokuba stay in the general area of the doorway. It was close enough he would be able to listen in on any of the conversation, even if the words were spoken quietly. But judging from the reverberations of the knock, he didn't think eavesdropping would be a problem.

The door opened.

"Where is he?" Mokuba asked.

"Seto asked for some time alone. He's staying in a guest room tonight."

Seto could easily imagine the expression on Mokuba's face, lips turned down in anger while eyebrows pressed in, confused.

"It's my birthday."

"It is."

"We are supposed to watch a movie."

Seto closed his eyes and found that it didn't help removed the onslaught of expressions his mind imagined. The emotion leaked out of Mokuba's voice and almost had him turning the corner and just letting Mokuba make his apology, find a way to move on instead of working through how Seto actually felt about the outburst.

_I don't need you._

It would be simpler to forgive him for the mistake he hadn't intended on making and move on. But if there was even a chance Mokuba would be leaving, Seto needed the night to himself first to come to terms with the idea before telling Mokuba, to let Pegasus sleep on it before breaking the news. He might still change his mind.

And he couldn't look at Mokuba with those words still controlling his thoughts.

"I promise, Little Mokuba, it's just for the night. I'll have him back to you before breakfast tomorrow."

"I didn't mean it. It was just a bad moment."

"You cursed at him," Pegasus said.

"I cursed at  _you_."

"I'm just here to grab his glasses. Bathroom, I'm guessing?"

Footsteps sounded and Mokuba's voice got quieter, likely following Pegasus back into the bedroom. "You have to let me talk to him. Tell him I'm sorry."

"First thing in the morning."

"How am I supposed to get to sleep when I know he's mad at me?"

A short pause. "He's not mad at you. Trust me. If that boy loved you anymore, his eyes would pop out of his head."

"That's … gross."

Pegasus laughed carefully. "I'll think up a better way of expressing it. Until then—" Pegasus came back out of the room and into the hallway, probably having found Seto's glasses.

"Please tell him I'm sorry. Get him to come back tonight so I can tell him. I'm so sorry."

"I'll let him know," Pegasus said. "If you aren't ready to turn in, I think Téa and Ryou are in the library. I could send down some games for the three of you."

"I don't want to play games. I want Seto here."

Seto waited while Pegasus apologized on his behalf, offering assurances that Seto would return in the morning, first thing, just as soon as Mokuba woke up. There weren't cameras in the rooms anymore, so Seto didn't know how Pegasus would know when Mokuba woke up, but Mokuba didn't ask.

The door closed and Seto stayed put. Pegasus stepped up to Seto and held out his glasses case. "I find it hard to believe you could hear all that and not run to his side immediately."

_I don't need you._

"You're still going to let him go?"

"I'll go prepare the arrangements now, or I suppose, once I get you to a room for the night."

Pegasus used the walkie talkie to contact someone, having another hallway and room opened up for Seto. Since it was in an area Seto hadn't been to before, Pegasus walked him over without word, other than to say he would have dinner sent up so Seto wouldn't have to risk crossing paths with Mokuba.

The guest room was much larger than Seto's room, about the size of their entire suite. Seto debated searching it when he noticed there wasn't a camera in sight, but ended up just sitting on the edge of the bed and taking out his contacts. If Pegasus actually followed through with his promise, then Seto couldn't search for an escape anymore. This castle, this island, would be the rest of his life.

But Mokuba would have a chance at an actual future.

That was all that was important.

* * *

The next morning, Pegasus knocked on Seto's door as the sun was coming up. He gave Seto long enough to switch out his glasses again, then led him right back to his suite.

"Sleeping on it didn't change your mind?" Seto asked.

"It did not. Did it change yours?"

"No."

Pegasus knocked before opening the door, ushering Seto in only for him to immediately be wrapped in a hug. Seto returned the hug, squeezing Mokuba more tightly than he probably should have. He knew Mokuba would choose to stay, but there was still that slight chance he would want to go.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to say it like that. You're everything and I'm—"

"Hey," Seto said, running a hand through Mokuba's mess of hair. "It's okay. I'm not mad."

"You should be. That was out of line."

Pushing Mokuba back a touch, Seto leaned down—not nearly as far as he was used to—and caught his gaze. "You're allowed to have emotions even if you think I might disapprove of them." He stood up a little straighter and watched Pegasus close the door. "We do need to talk though. Let's sit."

Mokuba's eyebrows turned down and he followed Seto to the couch, sitting in his usual spot beside him and glancing back and forth between Pegasus and Seto.

"Both of you need to talk to me?"

Pegasus stayed quiet, crossing his legs and leaning back in the same position he had been in the night before. The posture should have read calm, but his foot bounced with tension and his fingers tapped on a thigh. Maybe he shouldn't tell Mokuba just yet, not if there was a chance Pegasus would take it back.

However, getting Pegasus to make the promise to Mokuba would be the surest way to ensure he would follow through.

There wasn't an easy way to break the news, so Seto put it as simply as he could.

"Pegasus and I talked. He agreed that you were innocent in what happened, that you can go."

Mokuba blinked once, twice, lips pressing together and rubbing against the each other slowly. "I can go where?" he asked.

"Home."

"You're my home, Seto."

"He doesn't blame you. If you want to leave, he'll make the arrangements."

Mokuba scooted back from Seto, then got to his feet. His hands came up, palms to Seto, like he was instructing him not to follow. "You're sending me away? Because I cussed at you?"

"I'm not sending you anywhere," Seto said. Even though Mokuba wanted him to stay seated, Seto stood, but didn't move closer. "He's giving you the option."

"You're trying to send me away and I'm not going anywhere." He turned on Pegasus. "I'm not. You can't make me leave."

"Like he said," Pegasus said quietly, "The option is there, even if you only choose to take it ten years from now."

"You've already taken him from me twice. It's not happening again. You hear me?" Mokuba said, back to facing Seto. "You can't just throw me away because you think I'm better off alone in a house that will never be my home without you."

"No one is throwing you away," Seto said. He put his hands on Mokuba's shoulders and had to keep a firm grasp with Mokuba trying to back out of it. "You shouldn't have to grow up here."

"Neither should you!"

Mokuba slapped at both of Seto's hands and he had to release his hold. Several deep breaths followed, visible on Mokuba's chest and loud enough they almost echoed. Tears started to build and Mokuba wiped them away harshly with the back of a hand.

"I'm not leaving," he said, giving each word its own emphasis.

"You don't have to," Pegasus said. "You also don't have to wear that tracking device any longer. I simply ask that you respect my home and don't go rifling through things you shouldn't." He stood as well and checked his watch. "Let me know if you change your mind. We'll find an excuse for your absence back in Domino and get a boat ready."

"I'm  _not_. leaving."

Except he did storm out of the room, only without the tracking device.

"That could have gone better," Pegasus said.

"It's what I expected."

"You aren't going to run after him?"

Seto shook his head, then brushed his hair out of his eyes. It needed to be cut again. "He may want to stay in a different room for a while. He'd like the one from last night."

"It isn't like you to let him wallow."

"Who's to say what I'm like anymore? He needs space. He knows where to find me when he's ready."


	58. Chapter 58

Three months after the botched escape plan, Yugi and Wheeler joined them for dinner. Seto sat in his normal chair—Mokuba's empty to his left—and scanned Yugi and Wheeler for injuries. Nothing seemed wrong other than anxiety coming across through minor fidgeting. Wheeler didn't look as bad as he had after the time in the dungeon, so he must not have ended up being sent back down. And three months was much less time than Seto had expected they would receive.

Pegasus came into the room and greeted everyone before frowning at Mokuba's seat.

"He's a lot harder to keep up with nowadays," Pegasus said, reaching into his pocket for a moment before kneeling down beside Bakura. He produced a key and started to unbuckle the straitjacket.

"What are you doing?" Bakura asked. He flinched away from Pegasus's hands and closer to Seto.

"I'm tired of this. Aren't you?"

Seto leaned forward to look around Bakura. "You're letting him keep it off?"

"I hope so. If you talk to  _him_  first, let him know that all the guards are armed."

It took a minute, but Pegasus stepped back with the straitjacket and pocketed the key. A guard came forward to take the jacket and Seto checked for weapons. A gun was holstered on one side and the taser on the other. The other men lining the room had the same weapons.

There weren't normally so many guards.

"You mean it? If he behaves, I don't have to wear it anymore?"

"I mean it. Let's all work together to try to make sure he isn't acting out. It's been too long and I don't want to have to keep this up anymore. Will you all stand guard with me?"

Heads around the table bobbed up and down. Even a few of the guards responded to the question by nodding slightly. But Bakura was all smiles and gratitude. He stretched out his arms and they shook, but it didn't take away from his excitement.

"Thank you," Bakura said again. "I'll tell him. I'll do what I can. I promise."

"No need for the nerves," Pegasus said. "I want you to stay free of that monstrosity."

Seto blinked and let the comment go, and thankfully, so did Wheeler. He had watched the scene unfold with tired eyes. He made it in the dungeon for a year; the three months locked in a room upstairs shouldn't have been such a burden. Especially not when it was because of a ridiculous mistake.

"Have you come across Little Mokuba today?" Pegasus asked, looking to Seto before taking his seat at the head of the table.

"Not for a while," Seto said, same as every day for the last several weeks. Mokuba had stayed in the guest room and avoided the library and the kitchen. Seto stayed inside to give Mokuba all the outdoor space. Through a window, he had caught Mokuba outside a few times, watching him ride laps on one of the four wheelers.

He hadn't come to any of the group dinners.

"Ryou, Téa has offered to throw your birthday party for you," Pegasus said. He signaled for the food to be brought over along with his wine. "Do you have any preferences for her? Game ideas? Cake choices?"

"I like pastries?"

"I'll make a list," Téa said, to Bakura first and then to Pegasus. "The brands I use to bake."

"My men will get it exactly."

Talk began of what sort of celebration Bakura would want and Seto focused on his meal so he could leave before he got roped into participating in whatever they came up with. Staying out of the planning for Mokuba's party hadn't been possible, but there was no reason for him to be involved in Bakura's birthday.

"Why don't we all head down to the theater room tonight?" Pegasus suggested. "I could get the kitchen to make some snacks."

Bakura reached for his cup and smiled while he did. He flexed his fingers around the glass again and again. Seto watched for several seconds before having to look away. Such a simple action shouldn't have been cause for such relief and excitement. But even Seto felt some of the relief Bakura must have been experiencing.

And Seto had agreed to stay with the man who had done that to him.

"Seto, I got a new movie player. I need it set up to the game consoles down there. Could you help when we head down?"

Or in other words,  _come down with us_.

"I can."

"Perfect. I scrambled with it all day and came up with nothing."

"I highly doubt that," Seto said, finishing off his chicken and picking up his cup in no rush since Pegasus had cut off his plan to make a quick escape. If Seto couldn't tell from his angle that Pegasus still had a hole in his face, he might have thought the Eye was back. But then again, Pegasus had always been too insightful for his own good.

"Fine. I gave it a glance and knew it was a job better suited to an engineer than to an artist."

Wheeler picked at his tracking device. Pegasus cast his gaze in that direction but said nothing about it. Seto wanted to think that their release was due to trust or having behaved, but knew it was more likely a timed imprisonment like Seto had received. If it had been based on trust, Wheeler and Yugi likely wouldn't have gotten out at the same time.

Seto looked over the table, awkward, careful, a group of people treading water, and then to the empty chair beside him. The past few weeks had been a clear indication of what would happen whenever Mokuba decided to leave, which Seto had to believe he would. For all his insistence on staying, he might as well have been gone.

Then this would be it.

Seto remembered when he thought he had found the new normal back inside the glass room. It had been so long ago, and so much had developed since then, but he was really no better off than he was before. He was still trapped, still couldn't see Mokuba, still constantly surrounded by the claustrophobia.

"Kaiba?"

Seto glanced at Bakura. "What?"

"You didn't answer."

"I wasn't listening."

"Did you like that book you'd been reading?"

Seto thought to it and thought he remembered something about Bakura wanting to read it if Seto thought it was worthwhile. He answered simply, "Better than I expected. It's back in the library."

"Am I allowed to go outside without that?" Bakura asked, leaning around Seto to address Pegasus.

"Supervised," Pegasus answered lightly.

"I'd like to read outside tomorrow," Bakura said. His fingers hadn't stopped moving, grazing over each other, feeling the edge of the table, touching his hair, rubbing the hem of his t-shirt. Seto had to remind himself that this wasn't actually his first time out of the straitjacket. Maybe it was just his first time after being offered freedom.

 _No_ , Seto reminded himself,  _none of this was freedom_.

"You should read on the back patio," Pegasus said. "We're in our dry season, so it's very hot. The patio has umbrellas."

They set up that plan and Pegasus apologized for not being able to join them, although he hadn't been invited. His reasonings were mostly due to work, and were followed by a speech about how lucky they were not to have that concern. He clearly didn't say it to insult, but the irritated expressions across the table were hard to ignore.

Although Yugi didn't seem so irritated. He was back to the depression act from before, picking at his food without ever taking a bite. If he and Wheeler wanted to stay out of the dungeons, they would have to stop acting like beaten animals. The goal was to play along with Pegasus. The least they could do was act grateful to be out.

So they wouldn't be of any use to him. Téa had been better, but still not to the level Seto might find useful.

That just left the spirit Pegasus was determined to destroy. And even he might not end up being helpful. Looking at Bakura's arms, Seto knew that he would never—

He said there would be no escape attempts. That was the agreement so Mokuba could wander freely, actually free. He couldn't look for an escape for himself because it would risk Mokuba. Mokuba had the option of freedom. It had to stay that way.

"Are you done eating, Seto?" Pegasus asked. Seto nodded and set down his fork. "We can go ahead and get the theater ready. You all can take your time."

Pegasus pushed back his chair and Seto did the same, catching look from Bakura that seemed off. His eyes were too narrow, too hard. Seto shook his head while he glanced down to see the outline of the Ring beneath the t-shirt.

"Well?" Seto asked once he realized the spirit wasn't going to do anything.

"Taking a breath before disappearing."

His voice gave him away to the others. Pegasus spoke up first, voice heavy with annoyance. "We were trying to have a nice night."

"Carry on," the spirit said. He flexed his fingers and broke off a piece of the roll left on Bakura's plate.

Checking Pegasus proved that he was just as tense as the spirit. If Seto had to guess, this was the first time the spirit had been free without any sort of boundary between them, with nothing but the guards lining the room—a few with guns drawn—to keep Pegasus safe.

"Kaiba-boy, do me a favor?"

Seto didn't have to ask what it was. He met the spirit's gaze and raised an eyebrow only to be met with a frown.

"Is that how you plan to tame me?" the spirit asked. "Take me away whenever you see the Ring?"

"For now." Pegasus said, then reminded Seto that he had asked for something.

The spirit took another bite and then pulled the Ring off himself. "You can't get rid of me without hurting the boy."

"He has a name, you parasite," Pegasus said, taking the Ring when Seto passed it back to him. "You would think you would do him the decency of remembering that next time you force him out of his body."

"Ryou," the spirit said, voice weaker than before, "—is perfectly fine, listening to the conversation and requesting I stop eating his meal."

"Then stop eating it."

Pegasus signaled to a guard and instructed the Ring to be locked away—his "again" came forced and exhausted—then watched the narrow eyes widen and Bakura become uncomfortable when he saw everyone staring at him.

"I can't really stop him," he said, then dropped his gaze down to his hands, gently turning over one another in his lap.

"No one expects you to," Yugi said, speaking for the first time that night. "You don't control magic."

Seto rolled his eyes and turned to Pegasus. "You wanted me to set up the theater."

"That I did. We'll head down. I trust you'll lead the others down?" Pegasus added the last part on while looking to Téa, who flashed a faked smile and assured him she would.

Seto and Pegasus headed out into the hallway, but Pegasus stopped a few feet down and leaned against the wall. He drew in a steady breath as if savoring each moment of it, then held it. He closed his eye when he exhaled.

"I need you to be his advocate," Pegasus said. "Talk me down when I consider locking him back up."

"Why don't you? It'd be easier."

"I asked you to advocate for him, not to take the devil's side."

"I don't think you should lock him back away, especially not in the pit he's described, but it's going to come to that point for all of us. Eventually you're going to realize that this charade won't work."

"It's working well enough."

Seto used a finger to scratch at the edge of his eyebrow to hide the twitching in his right eye. He shouldn't have ever thought of the others as what he had to work with. This was what he had, a delusional millionaire with insane notions of justice. Of course he thought it was working well. He was still coming out on top, even with the minor conflicts that had come up.

"I don't want you to shoot Bakura because that other version of him gets too strong for you to control."

"You want me to keep him in the straitjacket?"

"No. I would like to know your workaround."

"He behaves or—" Pegasus opened his eye and met Seto's gaze with more defeat than Seto thought Pegasus could express. "It won't come to that."

Pressing on would only force Pegasus to admit that he would kill Bakura before he let the spirit try anything. And from what little Seto knew about the spirit of the Ring, he would try something, and Bakura would die.

Maybe Pegasus would have his guards shoot to injure first.

It was something to hope for, at least.

"Come on. We've got a television to hook up." Pegasus pressed a hand flat to the wall behind him to push away from it, and Seto stared at the spot where he had been for several seconds, unsure how to process the shift in Pegasus's demeanor. His brain told him it was progress while his instinct screamed to run.

* * *

Seto closed the door to the empty suite and collected himself before taking off the tracking device. He forced himself to set it down easily, then work off his shoes and unbutton the top of his shirt. With eyes closed, he walked the same path he always took to the bathroom, then brushed his teeth, switched contacts for glasses, and closed his eyes again to walk across the hall to his bedroom.

He didn't check Mokuba's room. If Mokuba had decided tonight was the night to reappear, then some of the lights would have been on.

Seto might as well have been trapped behind the glass.

Nothing in his room grabbed his interest so he saw no reason to try staying up any later. His room was empty. Mokuba's room was empty.

Sliding his fingers up under his glasses, Seto bit down the welling frustration and reminded himself that this wasn't an option. He had to learn how to live like this. Pegasus wouldn't last long. Seto only had to make sure he lasted through Pegasus, and that Mokuba made it out.

He sat on his bed and looked out the window. There hadn't been any clouds for the past few days and there weren't any now, so Seto had a clear view of a half moon over the line of trees. Its light rippled over the water and broke out into shards across the ocean's surface, glittering on the waves the wind picked up.

He really hated this fucking island.

Seto took off his glasses and put them on the bedside table, then lay on his side, facing his bookshelf. He couldn't see anything past the edge of the bed, but didn't feel like closing his eyes. Closing his eyes was ending another day of acting, acknowledging the isolation even though Pegasus encouraged too many group activities, accepting that Mokuba hadn't come back.

At some point, he would. There wasn't much of a point in refusing to leave when he wasn't even spending his time around Seto. However long he needed to process, he would take.

Telling himself that for the umpteenth time didn't make falling asleep any easier.

He was drifting in and out when he heard the door to the suite open. It jolted him awake, but he stayed in the bed. There was no point in getting his hopes up when it was just as likely Pegasus coming in to discuss the incident in the theater room when Wheeler snapped at Téa for what seemed like no reason. Seto hadn't thought too much of it, but Pegasus might have.

Seto's bedroom door opened next, but he could only see the outline of a person, too short to be Pegasus.

"Seto?"

Before Seto could sit up, Mokuba joined him on the bed. He positioned himself facing Seto, closer than he probably wanted, but in order to fit on the bed with Seto, he had to lie close enough that their noses almost touched.

"I missed you," Mokuba said.

Seto didn't ask anything, not what prompted him to come back, not why that moment, not for forgiveness or understanding.

"I missed you too."

He draped an arm over Mokuba and hugged him even closer.

"I'm not going anywhere."

Seto smirked before pressing his lips to Mokuba's forehead.

"Good."

The day would come when Mokuba was ready to leave, but Seto was just glad this wasn't it.


	59. Chapter 59

Seto didn't know why he hated it more than anything else, but he and Wheeler made the best team for Taboo, even more than him and Mokuba or Yugi and Téa. It only took Wheeler a few hints to guess the word Seto prompted, and Wheeler's descriptions of his word were roundabout and ridiculous, but somehow Seto always knew what he meant. Their team was supposed to have been a joke and now they were leading the score chart.

"When you're basically dead for a while, but then not."

"Hibernate."

"If we left your ego on Mars, how'd you get from here to there?"

"Rocket."

"Hm. If you're driving some fancy ass car and skitter off a cliff, what might you be doing?"

"Falling?"

"And what are we not?"

"Ah. Free fall."

The teams had to be switched for the next round, putting Wheeler with Bakura and leaving Seto to keep track of the points so Pegasus could join in the game. Only Bakura got to play through each one since he was "the man of the hour," as Pegasus had put it for the past three hours.

But compared to Mokuba's party, Bakura's was tame. They stayed inside because the two months with no rain had dried out most of the vegetation around, and they agreed it wasn't as enjoyable to spend their time on dead grass as it was on a couch. And while the island had fairly consistent temperatures, the wind had come in with force, which made the already cool air feel even colder.

The oven timer beeped and Téa ran over. They were celebrating in her room so she could make the desserts Bakura had mentioned liking in a kitchen she was used to. And since it was a Saturday, they had too much time for her to move slowly, for sixty games of Taboo, for dragging out the party because everyone seemed to almost be having a decent time.

"So Little Mokuba," Pegasus said, leaning back on his couch from his spot between Bakura and Yugi, "—did Seto give you homework?"

"He did not."

"Really? I find that surprising. Ryou?"

"None for me either."

"What sort of a teacher doesn't give homework?" Pegasus said, now directing his question to Seto.

"The kind who can teach his students during the lessons."

"That's offensive to teachers everywhere."

"Teachers everywhere don't have two students and unlimited time."

Pegasus relented the argument. Seto didn't see the point of it or why Pegasus had brought it up at all unless he wanted Seto to keep them busy outside of the couple hours a day they spent in the library studying.

"Another two minutes," Téa muttered from the kitchen.

Maybe after they had eaten whatever sort of pastry she was putting back into the oven, Seto could excuse himself. Not because he had anything better to do, but because he was tired of watching this act carry on. There were only so many hours a day Seto could sit quietly. It might have been something he needed to work on, but he had already put three hours into today's act. It was enough.

"Now that you're twenty-one, will you be joining me in a glass of wine with dinner?"

Bakura shook his head. "It's probably best to keep him from becoming intoxicated."

"One glass won't get you intoxicated," Pegasus said, "But I understand the sentiment. You're probably right about keeping him from alcohol."

Especially now that Bakura had been out of the straitjacket for a couple of weeks. He mentioned to Seto during one of their study sessions that recovery worried him, that if he regained his strength, Pegasus might see him as a threat. Staying weak seemed like his only option. His reasoning sounded exactly like Seto's for how he had to act to stay out of the glass room.

But just moving his arms and losing the stress of someone having to wait on him constantly made a huge difference in Bakura's appearance. He didn't look as fragile and he didn't act it so much anymore. Neither knew what would happen when his strength fully returned and the spirit had access to it, along with the Ring.

"He's going to get me killed," Bakura had said.

Seto believed it.

Téa declared the pastries ready and pulled them from the oven before clicking it off. She waved the oven mitt over them before putting it up and calling Yugi over to help her with the plating.

"Oh, I forgot to mention, a matter has come to my attention I'd like you to weigh in on, Seto."

Seto raised an eyebrow rather than answering.

"It's been brought up that housing your jet in the hangar is costing a small fortune."

"Luckily you have two fortunes."

"Be that as it may, it's eating money without bringing anything in."

"It didn't bring in money before."

Pegasus nodded. "But you used it which made it worthwhile. It's not being used."

"I can't stop you from using my jet."

"But you would rather I didn't."

"I'd rather you didn't do a lot of things," Seto said. Mokuba nudged him in the side, but it didn't change Seto's answer. Pegasus knew how Seto felt about their situation even if he had agreed to stay. There was no point in hiding it. Besides, he almost always seemed to get a kick out of Seto arguing back, so long as it wasn't a dig at his character.

"But this is your flying dragon. Certainly you have a request for how I handle its current occupation."

Seto glanced to Mokuba, who he had built the jet for, and decided. "It's his jet. You should be asking him."

"Is that true?" Pegasus asked Mokuba.

An embarrassed flush creeped up Mokuba's neck and broke across his cheeks. He rubbed at his face like that would take the redness away. "I don't want you to scrap it or anything," he said, glaring at Seto like he had revealed some horrifying personal secret. "Just pay for the hangar."

Yugi carried over two plates and handed one to Seto and Mokuba. Seto took his and gave it a glance, unappetized by the amount of caramel Téa had drizzled over the top. While Seto cut it open to see if he might like the inside any better, Mokuba thanked Téa for the both of them. Graciously, Pegasus didn't attempt to make anyone sing before they got started.

"You know the hangar is expensive," Pegasus said as he used his fork to break off a bite.

"I think you'll manage," Mokuba said, then followed up with a large bite.

"All right, I'll play to your childish whims now. If down the line you change—are you all right?"

Seto turned to look at Mokuba, whose eyebrows were drawn together and his lips parted, breathing heavily through them. His gaze dropped down to his plate just as the gasping breaths started.

"Take me to Torra," Seto said, ripping the plate from Mokuba's hand and dropping both of them on the table, scooping up Mokuba in the same movement. "Now."

Questions arose from the group but Pegasus didn't linger. He jumped up and ran to the door with Seto, pulling out his walkie talkie and alerting whoever was on the other side to get the epinephrine ready. Mokuba's breaths had weakened, hardly gasps anymore.

"We're almost there, kid. Hold on."

His lips and face had swollen up past his nose, a splotchy red rash covering an even larger area.

They had time, Seto told himself. Just another minute.

Pegasus opened the door to the infirmary and Seto put Mokuba on the bed. Torra came out of the next room with injector in hand. The red light on Seto's tracking device distracted him for only a moment—too unfamiliar to go completely ignored—and he sat on the edge of the bed with Mokuba's hand in his while Torra brushed Pegasus aside.

She cleared Mokuba's leg before injecting the needle and they waited, each moment as hard as Mokuba's breaths.

Then a louder gasp came through. Mokuba squeezed Seto's hand back while he tried to calm the dragging inhales. The swelling would go down. He would be fine.

Seto closed his eyes. Mokuba would be fine.

"You said you were checking everything for peanuts," Seto said.

"She made a list of specific brands," Pegasus said, distantly, like he was having a difficult time processing what had happened. "I didn't even think—"

"How many times have we reminded you?"

Pegasus shook his head over and over. It wasn't like he would find an excuse Seto would accept because there wasn't one. Mokuba's breathing hadn't even righted itself yet and from experience, the rash would take even longer to heal.

Torra did her examine of Mokuba from the other side of the bed so Seto didn't have to move. He was given an IV and hooked to the machines to monitor his vitals, then propped up on the inclined bed. She gave him more medicine to take down the swelling and worked thoroughly and carefully, checking with Mokuba every so often to see how he felt, rather than just what the symptoms indicated. Seto appreciated that and simultaneously hated her for agreeing to work for Pegasus. How good of a doctor, of a person, could she be working here?

"You may want to let the others know he isn't dead," Seto said. "Because he very well could have been."

"I'm so sorry," Pegasus said. Then repeated it. "There's nothing else to say. I was careless."

"Just make the call."

Seto checked on Mokuba again. His breaths came easier, quieter, and Seto had to force his own breathing to calm as well. Mokuba was okay. They caught it in time and he would be fine. The swelling had already started to go down.

"We'll keep you in here for a while," Torra said, "Just to be sure no other symptoms come up."

Mokuba nodded and gave her a quiet thanks. She smiled and glanced at the monitors. "I'm going to call in an order for more epinephrine. Hang tight."

Seto frowned when he watched her leave the room. Whatever her destination was likely wouldn't be within the limits of the tracking device, although he could take it off without anyone knowing. Or at least he thought that was how it worked. Maybe it sent a notice any time it was opened. It wouldn't have surprised him.

But it didn't matter. He couldn't leave regardless.

Pegasus still hadn't made the call. But Croquet came in a few moments later and took the instruction to go get the others and allow access to the infirmary. He hadn't been gone half a minute before the light on Seto's tracking device turned green.

"You feeling okay?" Seto asked.

Mokuba shrugged. "I'm tired. And splotchy." He touched his fingers to his cheeks and pressed lightly, leaving white fingerprints behind only for them to fade seconds later. "Is it bad?"

"Not as bad as last time."

"Stupid peanuts."

The others came in, Téa peeking in first, and before she could apologize, Seto pointed her to the sink in the corner. "Use soap." The others had to do the same before Seto let them walk near the bed.

"It won't kill me to come into contact with peanut particles," Mokuba mumbled.

"You just complained about the rash. Want to add more to it?"

"How are you?" Téa asked, keeping Mokuba from answering Seto's mostly rhetorical question. She walked to the other side of the bed and leaned over to put a hand on Mokuba's shoulder. "I'm so sorry. I'm not used to checking labels."

"I'm okay. Let's just forget it happened."

"Hard to do when you're sittin' in a hospital bed, little man."

Wheeler sat on the foot of the bed, Yugi stood behind him, and Bakura came up to stand over Seto's shoulder.

"Had us scared. Wasn't sure what happened."

"Peanut allergy," Mokuba said. "I forgot to check."

Seto had forgotten to check. He supposed he couldn't put all the blame for the incident on Pegasus. He had slacked off, trusting that Pegasus was still checking the products brought in. He would do better.

Now that everyone was in the same room, a room not normally allowed, a couple of guards came in. They didn't seem happy about the sudden relocation. One of the men's hands twitched against his leg over a square lump in his pocket.

"How are you?" Bakura asked. He didn't get an answer, so Seto turned around to see Bakura was addressing him.

"He's okay," Seto said. Mokuba gave his hand another squeeze. "I'll be fine."

"Swole up like a balloon," Wheeler said. "Haven't seen that before."

"Am I still very swollen?" Mokuba asked.

"A little," Seto said, downplaying it for Mokuba's sake. Mokuba could see his swollen hands, so Seto couldn't lie about them, but he could pretend his face wasn't so puffy. It made him look younger, almost like he had looked before all this, just swollen to more of an extreme, particularly up around his eyes.

Torra reentered the room and seemed taken aback by the number of people. She gestured for Yugi and Wheeler to move out of her way, right as the guard by the door reached into his pocket, producing a lighter. Seto expected the cigarettes to follow, but the guard just messed with the lighter, only letting the fire come up for a second at a time.

An anxious habit, if Seto had to guess. Or he needed to smoke and hoped the lighter would trick his brain into thinking he had started.

"We've got more medicine on the way. Although I don't think it will be needed in the future."

"It most certainly won't," Pegasus said. "We will be much more vigilant in the days to come."

"You only have to stay a little while," Torra said, and although the usual monitoring after anaphylaxis was four or six hours, Pegasus insisted Mokuba stay until the following morning. Mokuba complained, but Torra offered to set up a DVD player to the television to help keep him occupied. "We can send one of those two," she started, turning to the guards and stopping cold. Her face went pale and her hand tightened at her side. "I've asked you not to do that in here."

The guard held the flame longer that time around. "It's a stone castle," he said. "Nothing t'burn."

It didn't relax her at all.

"We're not made of stone. The bed isn't. Hell, half the floor is carpeted. Take it outside."

Pegasus sighed but didn't say anything. It made Seto think they had had this argument many times before with no resolution. Seto remembered the first time he had met Torra, over a year ago, when his appendix ruptured or had been about to. The guards hadn't seemed like they liked her much then either. But taunting someone with something they were afraid of? That felt like a step too far for coworkers.

"Is someone going to get me the movies?" Mokuba asked, likely to diffuse the tension.

The guard who hadn't been involved in the argument responded and the other kept playing with the lighter.

_Take it outside._

Seto rubbed the side of his face and wondered why that sentence had stuck out to him. Probably because outside was so dry at this point, everything would—

That was it.

That was how they were getting off the island.

That was how to get home.

That was the escape plan he needed.

He almost laughed at how simple it was. He hardly needed to do anything and help would come their way. It would just be a matter of finding a few lighters or matches, and then staying out of the dungeons for an hour, avoiding Pegasus for an hour. He would need to act before it rained again.

Torra would make the call for them without even being prompted.

"Everything all right, Seto?" Pegasus asked.

Seto blinked and realized his face was twisted up in thought. He tried to clear it away before it prompted questions he wouldn't be able to answer. Because he had his answer. He had a way to get everyone home.

"You may want to double check everyone's kitchens," Seto said, as if that had been what was on his mind. "Make sure nothing else slipped through."

Pegasus nodded and started listing all the ways he would make sure something like this never happened again. It was easy to tune out, so Seto went back to looking at Mokuba. Even though his face was swollen, Seto could tell he knew something else was going on. And Seto wouldn't be able to tell him.

If Pegasus overheard, it would be the end of all of them.

And now that Seto had a plan, nothing was going to stand in his way.

He was going to burn the whole fucking island to the ground.


	60. Chapter 60

The next morning, more than fifteen hours after the reaction, Pegasus relented to let Mokuba return to his room, so long as he stayed in bed and big brother Seto kept a close watch for any further problems. Pegasus had clearly done research at some point and knew that Mokuba could still have a reaction, but hadn't paid attention to the fact that it was incredibly rare and very likely wouldn't be an issue.

But to get out of the infirmary, Mokuba agreed. He and Seto camped out in front of the television in their room, and Seto made cookies from scratch to make up for the fact Mokuba hadn't gotten a dessert yesterday. Mokuba insisted it wasn't necessary, but Seto's hands were anxious for something to do, something to distract himself from the constant run of plans his brain was working through.

There was no way to tell anyone. At least, not a way Seto could think of. All of the rooms and hallways allowed in range of the tracking device had cameras, and Pegasus seemed to hear everything that was said too. He hadn't mentioned the conversation with Yugi as having been anything more than what was said on the surface, so Seto might have had a chance to move there.

But he didn't need Yugi's help. And after Yugi and Wheeler had been locked away again, they might be more wary of plans not fully developed.

All Seto really needed was for someone to find him matches. A lighter would work, but matches would be better.

Those would have to be stolen, and he had a thief locked up with him. But finding a time to speak to the thief was almost impossible. Pegasus didn't let the Ring stay with Bakura for more than a minute or two if he had any control of it. If Seto saw it, he was supposed to remove it immediately. There wouldn't be time for a conversation, especially not one centered around stealing something. Although Pegasus had let Seto out before the others, he might still be keeping a careful eye to ensure no more escape attempts came up.

"Does this count as staying in bed?" Mokuba asked. He was propped on one of the arms of the couch, legs stretched out across the cushions.

"He meant to rest. You're doing that."

Mokuba would have been the best choice to enlist as far as sneaking matches went. He didn't have to worry about being tracked. Pegasus trusted him. If Seto was objective, he would have asked for Mokuba's help.

But if Mokuba got caught, then Pegasus would have something to hold him guilty for. A life for a life might not have applied, but Pegasus wouldn't be able to call him innocent if he ruined, or attempted to ruin, Pegasus's weak justice. It wasn't a risk Seto would take. He would rather bet on a spirit possessing someone he hardly knew.

He stopped mixing the dough to rub the side of his face. This would either end in success or absolute failure. He might never see Mokuba again if this failed. Everyone would end up locked away, possibly permanently. But it was this or actually learn to be content with Pegasus as prison guard.

"What kind of cookies are you making?"

"Sugar. Did you have something else in mind?"

"No, but you're taking forever."

"It's been ten minutes."

Seto got the cookies in the oven right as the door opened. Pegasus came in with a box in his hands, covered with a towel so they couldn't see what was inside.

"Hello again, Kaiba brothers. Are you still feeling well?"

"I'm fine. This bed rest really isn't necessary."

"It looks more like a couch rest to me," Pegasus said. He let the door clatter closed behind him and carried the box over to the couch. He unveiled the contents and let Mokuba look through the assortment of art supplies.

"All the greens you could want," Pegasus said.

"Are you trying to buy me?" Mokuba asked with a little smirk.

"That is very possibly the case," Pegasus said. He turned to Seto and waved him over. "I brought you things too."

Seto didn't care but had to continue acting like he was giving into Pegasus's plan and upholding his promise to stay. So he walked over and looked inside, first at the paint, and then at what had to have been for him.

"You got me a computer," Seto said, staring at the laptop resting against the inside wall of the box.

"I did. It's been custom built so you can keep up with your designings. It has new user manuals and product updates on it so you can stay on course with how technology is progressing and adjust accordingly."

"You said I couldn't work."

"I said I didn't want you to think that was why you are here. Work for fun. Design things for KaibaCorp. Shatter it against the wall. Do as you will."

"I'm guessing he can't get internet here?"

" _I_  hardly get internet here," Pegasus said. "But no, no network connection. If you do end up with something you want to send over to KC, then we'll transfer it over in my office."

Seto pulled it out before Pegasus could change his mind. "You know I can't be bought."

"That's not going to stop me from trying."

The primary reason Seto accepted the laptop, even more than the fact it was a computer and he wanted it, was that for Pegasus to have had it designed for Seto, to keep him locked out of internet access and to have the manuals installed, he had to have been planning this as a gift before Mokuba's reaction. It had likely been meant for Seto's birthday the next month, but after what happened, Pegasus decided to give it to him in advance. It wasn't something worth arguing, especially given that Seto wasn't planning to stick around much longer.

The accessories for the laptop, mouse, mouse pad, drawing tablet and pen, and power cable, came out after. Seto put them on the table in the kitchenette since he didn't have a desk or any other suitable work space. He would make it work.

"Do I really have to stay on bed rest all day?"

"How about just until dinner? You can make it that long, I'm sure."

"I don't want to though. This has happened before, you know. I didn't have any other problems."

"What do you think, big brother Seto? Is it worth taking a chance?"

"The point of him sitting like that is to prevent him collapsing and hurting himself. He knows his symptoms."

"It sounds like you're saying it's worth the risk."

"I'm saying he will sit down if he feels another episode coming on, or he'll tell me and I'll get him back to Torra."

"See? Even Seto says it's okay."

Pegasus looked back to Seto who busied himself setting up the laptop and plugging it into the outlet nearest the table. "I suppose if our resident mother hen says it's all right, I'll have to relent. But you should stay off your feet and try to let yourself recover."

"I'm recovered," Mokuba whined.

"He said you could get up," Seto said, powering on the laptop and sitting down in front of it.

"But he said it in that way that really means no."

"Then stay on the couch. It's not like you'll do anything today other than watch movies." Seto paused to shrug. "You could move the easel over."

"Now that is an excellent idea. You can draw another five hundred trees with all these greens."

"Should've brought browns for that," Mokuba said. "They're all starting to die."

Trying to make himself sound as uninterested as possible, Seto asked, "Is there any rain heading this way? Your island is turning into a wasteland."

"Nothing on the horizon but sunshine," Pegasus said.

"Does it always do this during dry season?" Seto asked.

"For the most part. There have been a few years that haven't been so excessively dry, but it's usually like this."

Any more questions might have been too far, too interested than Seto otherwise would have been. So he accepted the information he had gathered with the slightest of nods and started looking through the computer. All the minor increase in knowledge amounted to was increasing his urgency. One rainstorm would cut the fire's ability to spread in half. He needed it to spread everywhere, and he needed it to happen quickly.

If he could get word to Bakura, Bakura could pass the message on. That would be the surest way to get a message to the spirit, but only left the probably of getting Bakura somewhere alone and off camera.

_Because that wouldn't be impossible._

Pegasus didn't stay long even though it was a Sunday. He left shortly after arriving, promising dinner would be all of Mokuba's favorites, without any signs of peanuts. Mokuba was clearly ready for everyone to forget and move on from it, but with how often Pegasus referenced it, Seto doubted it would be forgotten for a while.

But it was something to keep Pegasus distracted.

Mokuba spent the day painting landscapes and eating the cookies while Seto familiarized himself with the laptop. It had been set up specifically to keep him away from any means of contact. He couldn't be sure without disassembling it, but Seto didn't think the computer had even been built with a wireless adapter. And there were no Ethernet ports, so stealing a cable and finding a jack for it wouldn't be possible either.

He was building the structure of a VR pod when Mokuba alerted him that it was nearly time for dinner.

Mokuba rinsed out his paintbrushes before they headed to the dining room. He stretched while they walked, glad to be up and moving for more than just trips to the bathroom, which he mentioned twice on the way downstairs. If Seto didn't know better, he would have guessed Mokuba had been on bed rest for weeks, not less than a day.

The others were already around the table by the time Seto and Mokuba walked in.

"My my, Little Mokuba. Your hands are a splendor of green! How is the painting coming along?"

"Lots of trees," Mokuba said, taking his seat beside Pegasus. Seto waited for him to sit before pulling out his chair, checking to see what sort of mood Yugi was in. He might need to act as a middle man since he already knew how to communicate with Seto without Pegasus picking up on it. And the more people between the information, the harder it would be for Pegasus to discern it.

It also left more room for mistakes.

They would have to be careful then, this time more than ever.

"And Kaiba-boy, how did your laptop work out?"

"I'll let you know."

Pegasus snorted and signaled for their plates to be brought over. "You can't just say thank you and go on like a normal person."

"Of course not."

He checked with Yugi and found his eyes down. That would never work. In order for the conversation to have any actual meaning, there had to be eye contact. And the eye contact had to at least appear natural, otherwise Pegasus would catch on.

Yugi might not be his best option after all.

"Are you doing any better?" Bakura asked, leaning forward to speak to Mokuba.

"I'm grand. Really. You guys don't need to worry about it."

"How can't we be worried?" Téa said. "I nearly killed you."

"I'm nearly killed all the time. A peanut isn't going to be what does me in."

"Mokuba," Seto said quietly. Hearing him speak so laxly about his near-death experiences was not what Seto needed on his mind right now. Thinking about how unfair that was or how Mokuba didn't deserve any of that would keep him from getting a message to the man sitting beside him.

"Sorry, but I'm good, so it's time to start talking about something else. You're the next birthday, Pegasus."

"That I am," Pegasus said, much more flatly than Seto might have expected, and from Mokuba's tone at the subject change, than Mokuba anticipated. Seto knew his birthday last year hadn't gone well, but not to the point he wasn't planning something elaborate for this year.

"Are you upset this is the last one before the big one?" Mokuba asked in a tone akin to teasing.

It got a laugh from Pegasus. "The big one? Oh child, you can't possibly think of thirty as being big."

"Every ten years is a big one, right?" Mokuba asked. He looked to Seto for confirmation and Seto nodded.

"At least I'll have another year before that particular doom and gloom then," Pegasus said. He took a sip from his glass and looked to Seto. "And what about your birthday?"

Wheeler burst into laughter. He almost immediately started apologizing for it, one hand clutching his stomach like it was too much. "Sorry, sorry. I just gotta mental image of moneybags in one a'those little party hats? You know, with the sparkles and shit?"

"I'd appreciate you keeping me out of your fantasies," Seto said, then sipped from his water.

"Don't you dare go sayin' I'm fantasizin' about ya. It was a stupid look for your big head."

"And yet you're still thinking about my big head."

Wheeler kept complaining while Mokuba kicked Seto's shin to make him stop. But even Yugi had cracked a smile, so no one really argued in Wheeler's defense. Of course, no one took Seto's side of the discussion either.

"Could I use the theater tonight?" Bakura asked. "I'd like to watch that new movie on the screen."

"Certainly. It's already opened up to you."

"What movie?" Téa asked.

"Pegasus got me a series of horror movies that came out last year."

"Not really my thing," Pegasus said, "But whatever excites your fancy."

"Can we watch?" Mokuba asked. "All of my movies are comedies. Might be a fun change."

"You'd be terrified," Seto said, even though watching a movie with Bakura—particularly when Pegasus wasn't interested—was the opportunity he needed.

"Good thing I've got a strong big brother to make sure I'm not scared after."

For one more demonstration of resistance, Seto said, "We're going to have to sleep on the couches."

"Then we'll sleep on the couches!"

Seto lifted a hand in feigned defeat and Mokuba excitedly asked Bakura about the movie. The others, aside from Pegasus, agreed they wanted to watch it too. Bakura started out seeming glad for the company, but the more time passed, the quieter he became. Seto recognized the symptom and wondered why he wasn't saying anything about the Ring rematerializing. Maybe there was just no point before it fully appeared. Or maybe Bakura left it on longer than he should have out of spite or as a favor to the spirit.

Whatever it was, Seto hoped for the chance to speak to him personally, rather than wait for him to come back. From what he had been told, it might be an hour or a week. In a week, rainstorms could have come through. They could roll in the next day. They didn't have time to waste on waiting around for a spirit to reappear.

"Since everyone's coming," Bakura said right after he finished his last bite of dinner, "I should bring all the new movies, just in case you want to pick a different one."

Wheeler called for an all-night marathon, and since none of them had anything better to do, it was decided upon. While they all finished eating, Mokuba announced they should get their blankets and pillows to set up for the night, and Pegasus said he would have more of them sent down.

"Kaiba, would you help me carry the movies?" Bakura asked. "I'll have to grab my pillow as well."

Seto nodded and Mokuba offered to get Seto's things from their room too. That apparently finalized the plan, although Pegasus did remind them that Seto wouldn't be able to get inside Bakura's room. That was a line he wasn't willing to lift the boundary for. He hadn't minded letting them into Téa's room, although he had been there for that, which might have been the difference.

"We'll make it work," Bakura said. They had both finished eating, so they left before everyone else to get started on gathering what they would need. They didn't talk through the first hallway or up the staircase, and Seto was beginning to think Bakura actually just wanted an extra set of hands when he was grabbed and slammed against the nearest wall.

The spirit glared through Bakura's eyes and held Seto's upper arms against the stone. "How long as it been, Seto Kaiba? How long do you intend for us to stay here?" He shook Seto weakly, the grips on Seto's arms already fading.

Seto glanced up at the nearest camera and rolled his eyes at the ridiculous display. Then looking tiredly to the spirit, he answered, "You really have no sense."

Before any guards could be alerted, Seto switched their positions, taking out one of Bakura's legs with a foot and grabbing his arms to throw him back against the spot Seto had just been pinned in.

"Do you honestly believe you are in any condition to fight me?" For the camera's sake, he reached for the Ring, leaning in like he was searching for the cord. "That Bakura's body is in any shape to attack someone?"

The spirit struggled and Seto pulled the Ring into sight, twisting it so the cord tightened around Bakura's neck. The spirit glared, face in full view of the camera, which was exactly where Seto wanted it, since his own face was turned away from it. There was no guarantee they could speak without being overheard, but Seto had no other choice.

"Next time you think about coming at me like this?" Seto started, leaning in closer to whisper. "It'd better be soon and with the matches I need."

Thankfully, the spirit didn't question it. He fought against Seto's hold but wasn't strong enough to force him off. Seto pulled the Ring over his head and threw it down the hallway and waited. Not five seconds later, Bakura was back.

"Did he hurt you?"

"Did I hurt you?"

"No," Bakura said, running his hands over his arms, then raising one to his neck as if to check. "No, I'm all right. What did he want?"

"Same as always," Seto said. He turned toward Bakura's room and said, "You'll have to bring everything out," as if nothing had happened. Bakura seemed to accept that, and hopefully, Pegasus would too.

He could only hope the spirit didn't take another week to appear. But while he waited, he could look for matches himself, and try to find a way to get everyone clear of Pegasus for the time needed for help to arrive.

He had less than a week to get this all ready.

There was just one week left of this, no matter the outcome.


	61. Chapter 61

Since the lights had always been turned down in the theater room, Seto never noticed that there was only one camera. It was in the back corner up above the rows of couches, but just one camera meant a blind spot.

So two days after enlisting the spirit's help and coming up short on matches or a lighter, Seto put the idea in Mokuba's head of another movie marathon, which he naturally invited the others to. Pegasus said he would come by this time, at least until midnight, since he had to work the next morning.

If Seto was going to let the others know what was happening, this was the place to do it. With the movie playing, it would stop them from being overheard if Pegasus did have listening devices hidden around. They would still have to speak carefully, but talking to everyone one on one shouldn't be an issue.

Probably. If they had gotten the same speech from Pegasus about how he had to be able to trust them in order to stay out of the dungeons, they might turn him in to make sure it didn't happen. But he couldn't try anything without them all knowing, or then they would just get hidden away in the dungeon.

Seto doubted the castle would burn. They would have to be out on the balcony whenever help was on its way, otherwise they could be hidden below ground until Pegasus got everything cleared up. At least one of them had to talk with the incoming help, to let them know what was happening. Pegasus couldn't sneak everyone else away during a fire.

Or at least Seto hoped he couldn't.

He sat with Mokuba on the next to last row, not quite out of the camera's eye, but enough that they would be harder to see. He couldn't do or say anything yet, not with Pegasus two rows ahead, sharing a popcorn with Téa. But they were on the second movie, so it had to be getting closer to time for him to leave.

Bakura yawned and excused himself, not for the night, but to run up to the kitchen for a cup of coffee. He offered one to Seto and Seto nodded at the idea.

It was too dark for Seto to have brought anything with him to read, so he stared at the screen and tried to decide how much of a problem the guards would be. There was no way they could actually approve of what was happening, but if Pegasus was caught, they would go down with him. Even if they didn't, this was their source of income, probably some of their homes. Even if they did have the guards' pity, self-preservation would work against them.

But just one of Pegasus's visitors had to stay free for an hour.

They could try staying out on the beach. The fires wouldn't be able to get to them there, and Pegasus would have a harder time dragging them through the fire and back to the castle. But they wouldn't be able to light the fires after getting to the beach, at least, not enough to count for anything. If Seto could enlist Wheeler's help, they could both take separate sides of the island and get the fires going. They would have to either leave the tracking devices inside or take them off once they got to the woods, but even then—

Seto shook his head and Mokuba glanced over. "You didn't think that was scary?"

Seto didn't know what had happened, but he gave his standard, "Not in the slightest" answer.

Once the fires started, they wouldn't have much time. Pegasus would figure out what was going on and round up everyone. Most of the guards would probably be sent down to try putting out the fires. That would leave less men to guard them inside the castle, but Pegasus certainly would keep his best men behind.

And they would have guns.

Seto glanced over at Mokuba. He needed to be somewhere safe during all of this. Unless there was a room near an exit for them to barricade themselves inside, nowhere would be safe. There was always the option of keeping Mokuba with him, but exposing him to the risk of burning might not be any safer than leaving him inside.

One thing at a time.

He had to get the others on board with the plan first. Otherwise, they would end up hiding out in their rooms while the fires burned and Pegasus could just turn the locks.

"That's it for me," Pegasus said, handing Téa the bowl and getting to his feet. "Enjoy the rest of your night, everyone."

No one moved when he left because there wasn't anywhere to go. A table in the corner had been set up with the snacks and drinks, but other than that and the movie, there was nothing in the room to occupy them. But it wouldn't look natural for Seto to get up and talk to everyone one on one.

He should have enlisted Mokuba beforehand, have him call everyone over for private conversations. It would take more work to speak to everyone.

Or he could speak to Yugi and have him spread the word. No one would think anything of Seto talking to Yugi, and especially not of Yugi speaking with Wheeler or Téa. Seto could get the word to Bakura. That wouldn't be a problem.

Seto could fill Mokuba in on the plan later. So long as Yugi could tell Téa and Wheeler, Seto could handle the rest. He didn't need their help other than just not getting caught. Their role was simple. But he was sure it would still be a problem for them.

When Yugi got up to grab another bowl of gummy worms, Seto headed down to the front of the room to top off Mokuba's popcorn. Pegasus had one of the movie theater popcorn machines, and Wheeler made sure it was always full.

"Yugi."

"Kaiba."

"You should join Mokuba and me," Seto said, catching Yugi's gaze before turning down to the popcorn. "He has great commentary."

Yugi nodded. "Maybe for a few minutes."

They headed up to the back of the room and Seto sat on the middle of the couch, leaving the end opposite Mokuba to Yugi. Maybe Mokuba would overhear and that would be how he stayed filled in on the plan.

"This movie is scarier than I thought," Yugi said, picking through the bowl of gummy worms for the blue and red ones.

"I didn't realize Bakura's tastes ran so dark." Seto let his voice get lower, almost down to a whisper that he didn't think could be heard over the surround sound. Thankfully, the soundtrack to the movie was fairly continual, with at least something playing in the background of every scene.

"I would have thought he would stay clear of anything related to possessions."

"I have a plan," Seto said, handing the popcorn to Mokuba, who through the flickering light of the screen, frowned at Seto's statement.

"He'll hear," Yugi said, without looking around for the camera, which Seto appreciated.

"Keep your voice low. For this to work, I'll need everyone."

"Including Duke?"

Seto had forgotten about him. He remembered seeing his room and that it needed an access code, but finding it might take time they didn't have. And more than that, if Pegasus caught the door being opened or Duke getting out, then they didn't have a chance. Pegasus would shut down the attempt before any steps were taken.

"He may have to wait," Seto said. "Once help gets here—"

"We can't take the risk of him getting stuck here. He has to get out with us."

"I'm not saying to leave him, just to think this through."

"What's the plan?"

Seto gave the movie a few moments to pick up the volume, then answered during a chase that turned out to be nothing more than the main character's paranoia. "Burn it all."

"How will that work?" Mokuba asked, leaning against Seto's side like he was tired, but likely getting closer to the whispers without having to turn to look.

"Torra is afraid of fire. If the island is burning, she will call the mainland for help putting it out. Or an evacuation. Either way, people will come out here."

"The dungeons won't burn. He'll just hide us."

"Not if he can't get to us. It will take an hour, maybe less, for help to get here. We just have to stay free that long."

"He has dozens of guards everywhere. We aren't going to be able to duck all of them for that long. Maybe a few minutes, but not—"

"Only one of us has to stay free. Obviously everyone would be preferable, but so long as someone can send the alert that we are here, that this is where we have been, then we will be fine."

Yugi shook his head, subtly, while staring ahead, "He'll kill us before letting us go."

That was true, but only to a limit. If Pegasus thought there was still a chance to recover, Seto refused to believe he would shoot at the first sign of trouble. Maybe some people more than others. Pegasus would risk losing Yugi before he would let Wheeler leave alive.

"Then we divide up based on how likely he is to let us die. You want to go after Duke? You and Gardner stay inside, then when the guards are distracted by the fire, head up to his room. Grab some flour from the kitchen. It may help with the code. I'll take Mokuba to set the fires. Wheeler can take Bakura to the beach on the four wheelers."

"I don't know. If something goes wrong, there's no way out."

Seto nodded. "I know."

"What if she doesn't call?"

"She will."

"If she doesn't?" Mokuba prompted. He jumped at the shift in music, going from a minor melody to a screeching crescendo. He grabbed onto Seto's arm, which would be a good show for the camera that they were still watching the movie.

"We end up back in the dungeons."

Since Seto orchestrated the entire thing, Pegasus would give him the harshest sentence. He doubted it would be as easy as eighteen months. An escape attempt of this magnitude would likely land him a decade behind the glass, if not the pit and the straitjacket. But he would lose Mokuba and very likely his sanity.

And that was assuming Pegasus let him live.

"Then you're confident in this?"

"As much as I can be. The beach group's whole job has to be staying free, maybe leaving messages around in case we get caught. This will all take place in about an hour, so we'll have little time to get it done, but also a better chance of staying out."

"An hour," Mokuba said. "Hard to think this could all come down to so little time."

"Then when do we try it?"

"I'm waiting on Bakura, the spirit, that is."

"You're trusting him?"

Seto shrugged and shook Mokuba a touch in the process. "I needed a thief." Bakura had been gone too long to be getting coffee. "I'd assume he's working on it now."

"It's so risky," Yugi said.

"More than a boat?"

"That's fair."

"Fill in Gardner and Wheeler," Seto said, reaching over to pluck a piece of popcorn from the bowl in Mokuba's lap. It would help to know how much attention the monitors were placing on the camera, but it would be looking at the back of their heads, so as far as Seto could tell, they would be covered. Even if Pegasus grew suspicious, they only had to lie for a few days at most.

Maybe one day, depending on Bakura.

He added on, "I'll let you know when we're ready."

"How?"

Seto had already considered this and come up with an answer. "Mokuba? I'll get you to invite everyone to use your four wheelers. Muto and Gardner will decline, Wheeler and Bakura will agree. We'll ride to the beach to start. Watch for the fires. Once they're going, then you go for Devlin, but not a moment before."

"When we get him out?"

"I'd like everyone to be on the balcony. It may not be possible depending on the placement of the guards, but it will be in clear sight of the helicopters."

"But Joey and Ryou stay on the beach."

"Drawing SOS in the sand, hiding messages around, finding high ground and waving to the sky. Make sure there is some extra evidence that something isn't right here."

"I'll let them know," Yugi said, then started to stand. When Seto turned to look at him for his final comment, his face angled to the camera. Correcting it would be too obvious. He threw out something random he hoped would convey the same point.

"When we duel again, it will take everything you have."

"I look forward to it."

Yugi went back to his seat beside Joey. Téa had been sitting with Pegasus, but now that he was gone, Yugi encouraged her to move back to sit on the couch with him. They would be much more likely to listen to the plan coming from him, so Seto didn't let himself worry over it.

But Bakura had been gone too long.

When the movie ended, Mokuba jumped up to put in the next one. From the looks of their conversation, Yugi hadn't finished getting the others settled with the plan, which hopefully would come across as the ending of the movie scaring them. They didn't keep talking while Mokuba switched disks, or at least, not about the escape plan.

Bakura returned fifteen minutes into the next movie, two mugs in hand.

"Sorry it took so long," he said, carrying the mugs to the snack table rather than bringing Seto his. "Kaiba?"

Seto went up to the front of the room for his mug. Bakura had put it on the table, the hand that had been holding it now in his pocket. Seto no sooner reached for the mug than he was slammed back against the wall, drawing gasps from the others.

But Bakura, or rather, the spirit, didn't attack him.

He pressed his lips to Seto's.

Seto froze and couldn't fight back for a moment, letting the spirit work a hand through his hair and another into his front pocket while the kiss deepened. He flinched when Bakura's hand went too deep and remembered that he could push back, so he did. He broke away for a short moment, ended with a final peck, then got the length of his arm between them.

But it was Bakura's wide eyes and deep blush he met when he held the distance.

"I'm so sorry," Bakura said. He pressed both hands to his face to cover the blush, which even in the darkness was clearly visible.

Wheeler started catcalling. "Didn't know we had ourselves a couple'a lovebugs! Look at you two puttin' on a show. Betcha want another."

Even Mokuba was giggling from the back, pressing a fist against his mouth to try to stifle them, but failing completely. Yugi and Téa were both as frozen as Seto had been, stares alternating between Bakura and Seto.

"Kaiba, you have to know," he started, but Seto cut him off.

"We can pretend it didn't happen."

"I'd very much appreciate that."

"Look at how awkward you two're bein'! No shame in showin' a little love."

"Shut the fuck up."

Wheeler laughed more than Seto had heard in a long time. "Not a chance. Wouldn't be so damn funny if you two weren't so pansy about it."

Seto took a step toward Mokuba and away from the still-blushing Bakura only to feel a weight in his pocket. He knew what it was without checking and understood the need for a distraction as large as the one the spirit had just provided. Letting Bakura take over in the end made it seem as though he had been trying to gather up the courage in his delay outside, and gave the person watching through the camera something to report back other than a few concealed conversations.

"Oh, and Bakura?" Seto said, glancing back to face him while he spoke. "Mokuba mentioned riding four wheelers out to the beach in the morning. You should come."

Seto was halfway to his seat before he remembered the coffee, having to turn back around to get it. He had everything he needed.

Less than a day and they would be free, dead, or wishing for it.


	62. Chapter 62

Seto double knotted his shoelaces and watched Mokuba do the same. Mokuba pulled his hair back into a tight ponytail so fewer of the strands would fall out. They both had bottles of water filled and ready to carry with them, along with a lighter each.

Maybe he should have given Mokuba a chance to take Pegasus up on the offer to leave before trying anything. There was no guarantee the weather would hold out long enough or that Pegasus would follow through, but it had to be better than risking his life lighting fires around the island.

"You could stay on the beach," Seto said, just before he got to his feet.

"Not a chance. I'm four wheelering with you."

Mokuba was the best choice for the fires. He didn't have to wear the tracking device, and once the smoke built, it would take out the cameras. He could move undetected at the start, while there was a chance Seto would be noticed not wearing the tracking device immediately. At least he could serve as a distraction while Mokuba worked.

Seto grabbed his jacket and put it on. He could say it was for the winds, heavy and cool, but it would keep his wrist covered in case someone was watching him through the cameras, looking for the tracking device. And once it fires picked up, it would offer protection from them as well.

They made an attempt at breakfast, although neither of them could get down more than a few bites.

"You ready?" Mokuba asked.

"To ride four wheelers with the Geek Brigade?" Seto said, just in case anyone was listening in. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Grouch."

The sentiment didn't match Mokuba's expression. As far as they could tell, Pegasus never replaced the cameras after Mokuba took them down, but there had been plenty of days when they were both out of the room and hidden cameras could have been installed. It was all based on hope now.

Hopefully no one could see Mokuba's anxiety.

Hopefully they wouldn't notice the bands coming off.

Hopefully they wouldn't be sent to the beach with a guard.

Hopefully Torra would make the call.

Hopefully she would tell them to bring guns.

It was too much chance and Seto never had much luck.

Before they headed downstairs to look for the others, Seto stepped into his bedroom and pocketed the picture of Mokuba that had been in his locket. It was the only thing on the island he wanted to make sure ended up wherever he did, whether back home or back behind the glass.

He gave himself no more than a minute to look at it before walking over to grab his tracking device. Clipping it on like normal, Seto pulled the end of his sleeve over it. He didn't need to watch for the green light anymore.

He closed their room door behind him, hopefully for the last time.

Mokuba's hands were nervous while they walked to the kitchen, moving in and out of his pockets, knuckles cracking, fingers turning one over the other.

"You okay?" Seto asked. He glanced down to Mokuba's hands and Mokuba straightened his fingers a moment before letting them fall naturally at his side.

"I'm fine. I think it's just going so long without rain. Makes me antsy."

"I'm sure it will rain soon."

They kept talking all the way downstairs to keep Mokuba calm and to put on an act for the cameras. For not being a morning person, Mokuba was typically chatty once he got up.

Everyone but Yugi was in the kitchen when they entered, including Pegasus.

"Good morning, Kaiba brothers! It's such a rarity to see our Little Mokuba out of bed at this hour."

"Ha ha," Mokuba said, sliding into a seat at the island. "We're going to go four wheeling, probably out to the beach."

They had forgotten their water bottles. That was fine. Not worth going back for. But it meant that already, both of them were distracted enough that things were being overlooked.

"Want to come?" Mokuba offered, looking from Pegasus to the others.

"Wish I could, but alas, I'm in conference calls all morning."

Mokuba shrugged. "Saturday then. Oh, or at sunset. I haven't been out to the beach at sunset yet."

Seto tried not to react to the cleverness of making future plans with Pegasus. He should have thought of that himself. It was such a small detail that would end up influencing Pegasus greatly. He didn't want to believe Mokuba could lie. Maybe he would initially think the fires were an accident, one of his guards smoking and tossing a still lit cigarette to the ground.

Even a few minutes of extra time might be crucial.

"What about you guys?" Mokuba asked.

"I'm in," Wheeler said. He chugged the rest of his orange juice, and while he did, Seto noted he was already dressed for the day. He must have agreed to the plan when Yugi mentioned it.

"Yugi and I were planning to spend time in the game room," Téa said. "He's got to lose at something eventually, right?"

"I wouldn't count on it," Seto said, although the memory of beating Yugi flashed through his thoughts. That hardly counted as a victory, and now was not the time to be thinking back on it.

"If you have an open seat, I'd like to join," Bakura said.

"For sure. We can seat four. So me and Seto, you and Joey."

Pegasus's smirk couldn't hide behind his coffee mug. "Now Mokuba, don't you think you should ride with Joey so that Seto and Ryou can share a bike?"

The exhale that came out of Wheeler hardly sounded human it was so loud. "I'd forgot about that! Yeah, Mok. Let those two squeeze on one together."

A red flush broke up Bakura's neck and to his ears. He crossed his arms over his chest, also wearing a jacket—probably too thick for what was needed—and turned his face away from everyone. "I'm sure Kaiba and Mokuba want to ride together."

"It's settled then," Seto said, ready for a subject change. "We're about to head down."

"I'll have Croquet meet you," Pegasus said.

Mokuba jumped in before Seto could argue it. "What? You have a third four wheeler you've been holding out on?"

Pegasus had to set down his mug from laughing too hard. "Could you imagine Croquet on a four wheeler? Good heavens, no. He'll walk. Now I'm not going to be able to focus on my calls."

"Okay. We'll meet him down there," Mokuba said. "Ready?"

They had to leave now to beat Croquet to the beach. Hopefully Téa knew where to find Yugi because their timeline to get started had just diminished drastically. Croquet's presence meant the most trouble for Wheeler and Bakura. He would notice the moment things went wrong and drag them in, shoot them, or call for backup.

They all were supposed to take off the tracking devices, but it might not be possible now. Seto wanted to give his to them, but if Croquet was using their position to find them, whoever was monitoring the bands would tell him Seto was there. When he wasn't, Croquet would call for help too soon.

Mokuba kept a conversation going, hands clenched into fists as his side, and that gave Seto time to think it through as they walked out of the castle and down the long flight of steps. Maybe he could hand off the tracking device before Croquet showed up, but wait until Croquet saw him where he was supposed to be before heading off. Or a third option was to wear the tracking device into the woods and take it off their, hopefully out of sight.

The path for the four wheeler must have been lined with cameras. Yugi and Wheeler and been seen and heard in what they had hoped was a secure part of the woods. There might not be an out of sight.

There were too many elements that could go wrong. Croquet's appearance would only be the beginning of the tidal wave Seto expected to roll in to ruin everything.

Seto and Wheeler both drove while Mokuba and Bakura climbed on the back of the seats. Seto started for the beach first, too pressed for time to bother with a helmet. Mokuba put his on in the first few seconds of the drive, then held on to Seto. He pressed against Seto's back and held him like a hug.

This would work.

This had to work.

They parked on the beach and climbed off, stepping away from the four wheelers since they would be a good place to hide listening equipment. They stood in a line, looking out over the ocean.

"How do we do this?" Wheeler asked.

"I'll give you my tracking device. Try to make it move out of sync with yours. Mokuba and I will walk into the woods."

"I thought we were taking the four wheelers," Mokuba said.

"Before Croquet became a part of things. Now they have to move faster. Besides, they wouldn't have helped avoid the fires. No enough maneuverability."

There certainly weren't any cameras in the ocean stretched out in front of them, and if Pegasus had managed to hide cameras under the water that could make out Seto uncuffing the band and handing it to Wheeler, they didn't have a chance anyway.

Wheeler put the band on his other arm.

"You're not the Bakura we need right now," Seto said, turning to meet Bakura's gaze. "I assume you still have it?"

Bakura nodded and touched a hand to his chest, pressing down on the thicker material of his jacket. "Good luck," he said, then closed his eyes and was gone.

"Now what?" the spirit asked, taking off the jacket and tossing it over one of the four wheelers. The Ring was visible by outline through his shirt, but they didn't have time to worry over it. They would be found out. Time was the only major factor.

The wind picked up and blew Seto's hair into his eyes. He brushed it aside and steadied himself. "Start riding as soon as he gets here. If you see him make a call, assume the worst. Do not get caught before the fires are going."

Mokuba took a deep breath, stepped forward, and grabbed both of Seto's arms. "Let's go look for frogs," he said, excitedly, and loudly.

"You're welcome to."

"Not a chance, Seto. You're coming with me."

Wheeler and the spirit broke out of the line so they were facing Seto and Mokuba more, which helped make it look more like a real conversation and less like a cover up.

"Don'tcha think our resident couple should hang together?" Wheeler said, elbowing Bakura's side and earning a shadowed glare.

Mokuba looked behind Seto, then met his gaze again while giving a light squeeze to Seto's arms.

"You're not serious," Seto said. "Frogs?"

"Why not?"

"Don't you think you're a bit old for that?"

"Not at all. I don't want to  _keep_  them. I just want to  _find_  them."

The footsteps behind Seto were close enough Croquet would have caught enough of the conversation. A little more argument was all Seto would need to sell it before following Mokuba into the woods. But Wheeler had on two of the bands, so he needed to move farther away before Croquet noticed.

"You don't need me for that."

"No, I  _want_  you for that. It's an important difference."

"Can't argue that," Seto said, then turned around to see Croquet. "Will you be joining the frog hunt?" Seto made sure to keep his voice flat to portray as much boredom as possible.

"No, Mr. Kaiba."

"You'll be missing out!" Mokuba said. He grabbed Seto's hand and started to pull him toward the trees. Seto glanced back to see that the spirit had moved so the Ring wasn't visible, but his expressions were nothing like Bakura's.

They had to start. Now.

"Where should we start?" Mokuba asked. They broke the tree line and heard the four wheelers rev up. Hopefully Téa had already found Yugi and the flour.

Hopefully Torra was awake.

"Let's stick to the path," Seto said for the cameras.

Mokuba agreed, walking down the path Pegasus had cut out for them and keeping his eyes on the ground, a hand in his pocket clearly playing with the lighter. The cameras wouldn't be able to tell what it was, so Seto didn't try to stop him and draw attention to it.

They didn't have much longer to keep up the act. If anything gave them away, it was that Seto wasn't where the tracking device said he was. He could only hope that after this long, no one was paying close attention to the monitoring. It wasn't much to hope on. Pegasus was too careful for that. But regardless, he would have to split up from Mokuba.

"Here, Seto! Come on."

"You're going to get us lost—" Seto started, but followed Mokuba off the path, now looking to the ground like he might see what Mokuba was talking about.

"It'll be easier to find them near water," Seto said.

"What water? The ocean? It hasn't rained in ages."

But there was still dew on the ground. Seto hadn't taken that into account. How had he overlooked that? The dew had to have evaporated out from the cover of the trees, but underneath, where their movements could be better concealed, everything was damp to the touch. It would burn, just not nearly as fast.

Seto broke small sticks and thin branches off the trees as they walked. He tried to find ones with leaves on the end, so he could light the handful like a torch and toss them so the fire would be nudged along. It wouldn't help much, but just one of them had to take well before it all blossomed out.

"Where do you think?" Mokuba asked, looking up at Seto, then pretending he lost track of the imaginary frog. He muttered a "shoot" under his breath and then added, "It probably went this way," leading them further from the rest.

"About here, kid."

Mokuba stopped. "You think?"

"Now or never."

"See you at the top."

Seto nodded and pulled Mokuba into a hug. There was no point faking for the cameras anymore. In minutes, Pegasus would have people down to chase them.

"Hold out as long as you can," Seto whispered, holding Mokuba as close as he could. "If you can't breathe, give up. Run to the balcony. He won't hurt you, okay?"

Mokuba nodded. "I love you."

"I love you too. Go."

Seto pushed Mokuba away to keep himself from holding on, giving himself three seconds to watch Mokuba run ahead before turning to run back the other direction. It was more dangerous this way, back towards Croquet and the castle, but if one of them had to be caught, it needed to be Seto.

He pulled out the lighter and held it to the leaves at the end of the bunched sticks and waited for them to light. Once it lit, Seto gave it a few seconds to grow before separating the individual sticks, leaving them on the ground as he went. A few of them died out before they could spread, but a couple caught on, edging slowly through the grass.

Seto couldn't wait to see if they took. He had to keep going away from Mokuba, cut off the easy path from the beach to the castle.

He ran out of the sticks in his hands and began lighting the trees as he came to ones with low enough branches. They took longer than he wanted them too, but once they got started, they would be much more difficult to put out. And when the leaves burned off and fell to the ground, the fire picked up on the grass.

The strike wheel grew hot and Seto burned his thumb constantly calling back the flame. He only let himself look back once to see his progress, disappointed in how slowly the fire seemed to be growing and glad for the smoke caught under the dense leaves.

He had maybe a couple more minutes before guards made it down from the castle and out into the woods. Through the fires he created, he couldn't see Mokuba or the extent of the progress he had made, but had to trust that nothing had gone wrong.

Hopefully nothing had gone wrong.

Seto made it past the path and paused to set another tree on fire. He shook the lighter and found it was too close to empty. That was something he hadn't considered. Whatever lighters had been stolen might not have been new or full. He hadn't checked Mokuba's since they were trying to keep them out of sight while inside the castle.

Seto picked up a stick from the side of the path and held it to the burning tree. Maybe it would be easier not to bother with the lighter, but to start transferring the fire from one place to another.

He looked back again. The world had turned orange and bright.

But that came with shouts from the direction of the castle.

Seto sprinted from the fires that had already begun to burn steadily, hoping the low smoke would keep him hidden from the cameras and out of the guards' reach. Maybe they would try fighting the fires first. If there was any chance Pegasus thought this was an accident, he would trust Seto and Mokuba, Wheeler and Bakura, to head back inside to hide behind the stone.

After coughing once, Seto pulled his shirt over his nose and mouth. The smoke hadn't gotten that bad. They could stay out longer. Torra might not have made the call yet.

A burning branch fell a few feet behind Seto. He turned to look at it and saw that the leaves at the treetops had spread faster than the surrounding area. They had exposure to the open air and sun and wouldn't have still been wet. The fire would move to the ground on its own. Seto just had to get out from under it.

But he kept running in the direction he had set out in, even though the area above him was burning. A few stray leaves fell in burning ash to the ground, the embers either dying in the dew or taking over and coming back to life. Breaking into the open would give his location away. He needed more time before revealing himself.

He outran the fire and kept on, thinking that he could loop back to the balcony steps before the fire cut him off so long as it stayed in the trees and out of the clearing for another fifteen minutes. That was probably manageable.

He jogged up a hill to look down at the progress.

Mokuba had made it hallway around the castle. There was a rocky hill wrapped around the back half of the castle, so the fire wouldn't make it past that, but everything up to that point had fires spread throughout.

They couldn't put this out.

Seto looked around and couldn't see anyone other than a few guards arguing at the tree line. The fire was still contained to the forest. There had to be a better way to get it to catch on the ground.

But the path to the beach was cut off. Wheeler and Bakura would only have to deal with Croquet unless Pegasus had some way to get around. But Croquet would be a problem. Pegasus wouldn't employee a worthless right hand man.

Seto jogged down the hill and knelt to feel the ground, covering his nose again when another cough worked out. The grass here would probably catch, so he held the lighter to it until he had a decent sized flame, then stepped back to let the wind kindle it for him.

Pegasus would be starting to search for them if he hadn't already. Without the tracking device, there was no way for Seto to pretend he had gotten caught up in some sort of an accident. Pegasus would know. Hopefully Torra had made the call and help was on the way. Otherwise, this would have all been for nothing. Once Pegasus knew what the plan was, he would send out word not to make any calls.

By the time even breathing through the shirt couldn't help, the lighter was almost emptied. Seto dropped it and started back for the castle. If help was coming, the only place he would be able to see it was from the top of the steps. It was a long trek up them, and he hoped beyond what he thought possible that when he got to the top, Mokuba would be waiting and helicopters would be in sight.

The air was heavy with smoke, carried by the wind to every visible space. It was hard to make out the ground in front of him or the castle above. The world had turned into a gray haze broken up by fire. Their world here was gone. Seto would never be able to go back from this.

He found the stairs and started up them. The castle was high enough that the further Seto climbed, the clearer his surroundings became although wisps of smoke curled around him. He spotted Mokuba halfway up, checking back while he ran. He held up a thumb to Seto before turning to continue ahead.

Seto didn't want Mokuba to reach the top before him. If guards were waiting, they would drag him back inside and out of sight of rescue.

But if the guards were going to try to do anything about the fires, then they would probably use the dungeon entrances so they could take the elevators. The balcony might be empty.

He could only hope.

Mokuba disappeared from sight before reappearing over the stone wall. He waved Seto on and gave him another thumbs up that had to mean the coast was clear, that or Yugi and Téa had managed to find Duke and gotten him out already. Seto took it at face value. Mokuba had made it up and was okay. He would find out the rest when he got up there. There wasn't a point in worrying while his focus needed to be on running up this endless flight of steps.

Glancing back, he saw a few guards coming up after him. They were much farther down, but would catch up given enough time. Especially since Seto planned to have everyone wait at the top.

Mokuba caught him in a hug the first chance he could. It lasted only a moment before they broke apart. While Seto looked Mokuba over for injuries, Mokuba did the same to him. Other than being covered in ash, Mokuba was fine. His cheeks looked a touch blistered along with his hands, but Seto knew he probably looked the same.

Yugi and Téa were already out with Duke.

The castle doors were standing open, but having them closed wouldn't make any difference. Anyone could come out to stop them, but they hadn't. That didn't feel right. Pegasus wouldn't give in this easily.

"Kaiba!" Téa called, waving him over. "What now?" she asked.

"Don't get caught," Seto said, then coughed. "Guards are coming up. Any could come out. Watch for help. Be seen."

Yugi looked to Seto with more confidence and determination than Seto thought he had left.

"I'm not leaving him here."

"Who?"

Yugi placed a hand over his chest where the Puzzle normally rested. "He's been trapped too long. I'm going back in for him."

"You're not," Seto said. He took a step forward and Yugi matched it going back. "Muto. That's a suicide mission. You can't get trapped inside right now."

"He'd go for me."

"Go after help is here, once we're sure this worked."

"And if they evacuate us first? If the fire gets inside the castle?" He shook his head. "I'm going now."

And he spun around and ran back through the open doorway, disappearing from sight seconds later. He would never find it, never get it out of wherever Pegasus had hidden it. Yugi just ran back to his death for a necklace.

Seto rolled his eyes and hugged Mokuba again, pressing his lips to ashy hair. "Stay here. Don't get caught."

Seto sprinted inside after Yugi.


	63. Chapter 63

Yugi had gotten halfway down the entry hall before Seto got inside, grabbing the stair rail to throw himself forward with the added momentum. The smoke from outside filled the room and Seto coughed through it while he ran to catch up, to drag Yugi back outside before he did something that would get them killed.

"Damn it, Muto!"

Mokuba was outside. Seto couldn't just leave him there without any means of protection. Anything could happen in the time they were gone. The entrance was still in sight, Mokuba growing hazy through the building smoke. He was fine now, but how long would it take for the guards to make it up the stairs or for men to flood out from the castle?

Seto's longer steps caught up and he reached for Yugi's arm to jerk him back, nearly sending them both down the staircase at their feet. "This is insane," Seto said. He didn't have the time to talk sense into Yugi when the plan had already gotten this far. There was no free time to stall inside when the helicopters could be arriving at any moment.

"You wouldn't leave Mokuba," Yugi said, scratching at Seto's hand until he let go.

"It can wait until we're safe."

"I'm going now."

"You don't even know where it is!" Seto shouted once Yugi had started running again. He turned to look back at the path to the doors, still clear aside from the smoke. Mokuba would never forgive him if he left Yugi to fend for himself, but at least Mokuba would be alive to carry the resentment.

It would take the guards from the forest several minutes to get up the stairs, and from the looks of the castle, no one was coming out the main exit.

_Five minutes to get him back._

Yugi had thrown off the tracking device at some point which just left the cameras to track their movements. Hopefully, the men stationed in whatever monitoring room Pegasus had would have already abandoned their posts in search of safety. The castle might have been built high on the island, but the fires would cause a panic. No one would stay at their post during this.

Yugi ran toward Pegasus's office. Although it was probably the best place to start, it came with the risk of running into Pegasus. It would have been Seto's guess for where he would hide during the fire, that or his bedroom. But Pegasus's office was in his personal area, the section of the castle their bands rarely let them access. They didn't know the area well enough to search it quickly.

"Stop and let's think about this," Seto said with the intention of grabbing Yugi and dragging him back outside.

"No time!"

"Do you really think running into Pegasus's private rooms is the best course of action?"

"I know he's back here," Yugi said. He took another turn and threw open a door Seto had never seen behind. They didn't go in, but Yugi scanned the inside before moving onto the next room.

Seto groaned and knew he should go back, but he offered, "What are you looking for, exactly?"

"He mentioned a safe. And I'll feel him."

"You'll  _feel_  him," Seto said bitterly, checking the hall for guards. Seto was beginning to find their absence more terrifying than comforting. They should have run into someone by now. Pegasus typically kept guards on every corner. If they weren't around, then something else must have been going on.

They worked down the hall and through all of Pegasus's private rooms, all the while, Yugi insisting, "We're getting closer. I know we are." The safe probably wasn't in plain sight. They were wasting time by not taking time in each room to look for a safe that might have been hidden.

"In here," Yugi said from across the hall. "I think he's in here."

Seto went over and followed Yugi inside what looked like a private library and work space. A desk in the corner appeared well-used, covered in papers, sketches, and books. But the walls were covered in bookshelves that could have easily hidden a safe.

While Yugi searched, Seto went to the window to try to make out how much, if any, progress had been made on putting out the fire. The smoke rose too high and bellowed too thick for Seto to see through clearly. They wouldn't be able to see the helicopters until they were very close. They might have to wait to hear them, but half the point of staying outside was to catch the rescue's attention before they landed. That would never work. If the guards were all waiting on evacuation, then the helicopters might go first to wherever they gathered, since they would be the larger group.

But Seto could see the balcony from the window. Mokuba, Téa, and Duke all stood together, alone, talking about something that involved pointing out to the flames. They were still okay. Seto had a bit more time.

"Here, Kaiba."

Seto left the window to walk over to Yugi, who had found a safe tucked behind a false shelf. It had a dial lock and they had no combination. Seto glanced in either direction in case Pegasus had left the combination written down somewhere. He hadn't.

"What was the code for Devlin's room?" Seto asked. If Pegasus assumed they wouldn't find one code, then he might have used the same combination twice.

"Fourteen, twenty-two."

"It will need another number. Wasn't his anniversary in April?" If so, it might just be the year he needed. After so long getting to know Pegasus, Seto felt confident he could figure out how long ago she had died.

"That sounds right."

Seto nodded and started working through the timeline. Pegasus had been twenty-four at Duelist Kingdom. He wanted to say that Pegasus had been married at seventeen. So twelve years ago? Seto might have been off a year or two, but not enough that he would need to make more than two or three guesses at most. And that was assuming Pegasus used the same number twice. It could have been anything—her birthday, a holiday, first date, anything.

No, Pegasus wouldn't have thought they would have gotten this far. Having separate codes would have seemed a frivolous security measure. Seto stepped forward to start on the code, turning each number carefully. He turned the year last and waited for the telltale click to follow. It came. The safe door opened.

But the Puzzle was in pieces.

''No. No, no, no." Yugi pushed Seto aside to grab the pieces and hold them to his chest. "He broke it I can't get this all back together right now."

Seto surveyed the damage. About half of the Puzzle was still intact, the rest in loose pieces. The chain was still in place, so Seto took the completed part and hooked it over Yugi's neck. "Pocket the rest of the pieces," Seto said. He didn't wait on Yugi to react before taking the pieces and shoving them into his own pockets. They didn't have time for Yugi to come to the realization on his own.

"We have to go," Seto said, grabbing Yugi's shoulder to drag him out to the hall, only to stop when he spotted guards at the far end. They both hung back out of sight, and while Yugi messed with the Puzzle, Seto tried to figure out a way around them. They were at the wrong end of the hall, so running back the way they had come wouldn't be a problem, it was just being seen.

They couldn't have been guarding anything. Seto guessed that they were scrambling for something to do and had just ended up there while working through their next step. Maybe if Seto and Yugi waited a few minutes—?

They didn't  _have_ a few minutes.

"Where do we go?" Yugi asked.

"Give me a second."

Seto peeked into the hall again to see that they hadn't left. He ran his hands through his hair and took three breaths, in and out, in and out, in and out, and made himself think. What were the odds that the guards were looking for them, or that in a fire, they would actually make an effort to restrain them? It couldn't have been that great of a chance. Everyone should have been in fight or flight. It had to be flight. These men would not risk themselves for Pegasus's justice.

But they were inside and safe from the flames. If the men wanted an excuse to go underground, dragging down two prisoners would be a perfect excuse.

"We'll have to run for it," Seto said. "Don't look back or stall. We'll get outside and figure out the next step there."

"I have to put it together."

"That's something for the trip home. Move or I'm leaving you here."

Seto checked the hall once more before sprinting out, listening for the guards' shouts to try to tell if they were being followed. Yugi's footsteps and heavy breaths overshadowed most of the other sounds, but Seto did hear the guards—"Over there"—and that made him pick up his steps. If he ran ahead, the guards might catch Yugi, but Seto didn't have much confidence in his hand to hand combat abilities at this point. It had been too long with too little exercise, and they had weapons.

Throwing himself down the staircase, Seto checked behind him while he turned for the second half of the flight, spotting Yugi a few feet behind but not the guards. They had been farther down the hall, but it would only take seconds for them to catch up.

And there had been guards coming up the stairs from the forest. They would have already gotten to the balcony unless they were called back down to help with the fires. He hadn't meant to stay inside with Yugi that long. Thinking of Mokuba being left outside urged Seto's feet to move even faster, although it put more distance between him and Yugi.

The large, open doors leading to the balcony came into sight and Seto saw Mokuba through them, talking animatedly to the two guards Seto had seen coming up the stairs behind him. They weren't standing close enough for the guards to touch Mokuba and it didn't look like they were making an effort to grab him. Mokuba kept gesturing to the open air over the edge of the balcony, which likely was a reference to the fire.

He glanced over when Seto broke out into the open, crossing the balcony to stand with him.

"What's going on?" Seto asked.

"They should go hide. Tell them, Seto. Tell them that if they don't want the police to know they were involved, they should go down to the dungeons and wait until this is over."

"We don't know your names or your faces well enough to turn you in," Seto said. "He's right. You could get away with this."

Until Seto told the incoming rescue party that there were people hiding in the dungeons. But Mokuba had a point. The dungeons were extensive enough that there was a chance of staying hidden even if searchers went down and combed through.

"Take those satellite phones," Mokuba said. "You can call for help once we're gone."

The guards exchanged a glanced that had to mean,  _I'm in if you are_ , and before they could step off, Téa screamed.

Everyone turned to the castle where Pegasus stood in the doorway with a gun to Yugi's head and a hand twisted in the chain for the Puzzle, choking him. He dragged Yugi out of the castle and to the side so no one could reach them, not that they would with the gun.

"This is very impressive, Kaiba-boy."

Pegasus pulled Yugi farther away while Yugi grabbed at the chain and tried to give himself an inch of space to breathe. Without a hand to gesture to the destruction Seto had caused, Pegasus had to settle for an exaggerated look at the amount of smoke wafting around them.

With the force of Pegasus's eye, Seto allowed Pegasus to direct his stare, but with that came the most relief he could remember feeling. Helicopters were coming toward them.

It worked.

"Such a shame that this is how it has to end. You're quite the devious liar."

Pegasus kept backing away, and Seto realized where he was headed. "Pegasus, don't."

"Don't what? Do something rash and reckless?" he asked, getting closer and closer to the edge of the balcony where Seto had threatened himself in the duel with Yugi. They all moved forward like staying close would keep Yugi from the fall.

Seto's gaze flickered up to the helicopters, still too far away, just shadows of black through the smoke. Unless they had seen messages on the beach, they might start with the fires unless Torra had just requested an evacuation. That had to be what she wanted since putting out a fire without access to hoses would be too difficult. Evacuating meant finding everyone through the smoke and then finding a place big enough to land.

"Don't hurt him!" Téa shouted, taking another step forward only to stop when Pegasus used the chain to force Yugi's gaze upward. If he had the air to cough, Seto was sure Yugi would have gotten out more than dry rasps.

"Oh Téa dear," Pegasus said, stepping up onto the balcony with some difficulty, almost having to lift Yugi up with him. "—You shouldn't have given me a reason."

"When did you ever need a reason to hurt us?" she pressed, but Mokuba stepped up and put a hand on her arm to make her stop. With the chaos surrounding them, the high winds, and the width of the balcony which Seto knew from experience wasn't much for two people, Pegasus didn't need them to force his hand when there was already a chance of an accident.

"So what, Seto? You've ripped my world apart once only to make another go of it?" Pegasus said, nearly shouting over the wind.

"You had to know this was a possibility."

"I offered to let him go! I made a sacrifice for you!"

"Pegasus. Step down from the ledge. We can talk about this," Seto offered. He watched the helicopter in his peripheral to gauge how much longer they needed to stall, how long they had to keep Yugi alive before Pegasus acted.

Too long.

"You make yourself so easy to believe," Pegasus said, pressing the gun more harshly to the side of Yugi's head. Yugi squeezed his eyes closed in response, but they fluttered open when Wheeler's shouts came from inside the castle. Heads turned that way only long enough to see Croquet leading Wheeler out, hand to his shoulder and gun to his head, and another guard following with Bakura.

"What wrong, Seto?" Pegasus asked calmly. "Did you think they were safe out there?"

Seto almost asked how Pegasus had done it, but there wasn't any point. It had to be the dungeon tunnels running under the island. One of them must have gone to the beach. That hardly seemed to matter. The helicopters were in sight but Pegasus had a gun that probably held all eight rounds. Even without Croquet's weapon, the two guards still standing behind them, or the guard holding Bakura, Pegasus could kill them all.

"Come off the edge," Seto said, raising his hands in surrender. "Look around. This shouldn't be how it ends."

Pegasus glanced behind at the steep cliff below. "You made  _your_  final stand here. It only seems fitting this is where I make mine."

Final stand meant being ready to die. Pegasus standing on the edge was his way of conveying that he was making the rules, that death would be the only way out of this. He just as easily could have threatened Yugi from the castle doors, but the position was a larger threat than the gun.

Wheeler and Bakura were pushed a few steps out onto the balcony, but still close enough to the castle entrance they could be drawn back inside in a moment. They had been caught, which meant that the incoming help might not have seen any call for help other than the fire.

"Then what?" Téa snapped, shaking off Mokuba's hand. "Where do you go from this?"

"We go back inside. Permanently."

He wanted to keep this up.

He didn't want to kill them.

But Seto had no doubts that he would.

"You know that's not—" Seto started, but was cut off by Mokuba.

"Okay," he said, holding a hand out in front of Seto to keep him from walking any closer, and also to put himself at the front of the group as if to be their spokesperson. Though if Pegasus took the shot, it put Mokuba as his next target, which Seto couldn't allow.

"Tell us how you want this to go," Mokuba continued. "That way we don't do anything sudden and you don't have to hurt Yugi."

But it was Seto Pegasus glared at, standing directly across from each other. "Sweet Little Mokuba," Pegasus said, gaze on Seto, "I wanted this to go how it had been. You were free to go. You should have just taken my mercy."

Mokuba nodded.

"You're right. I saw this as a chance for Seto to come with me. I understand we made a mistake."

The first of the helicopters were close enough for Seto to see the blades and the most obvious of the details on its surface. All the pilot and anyone inside had to do was recognize them and Pegasus would be ruined. But Yugi would die. Maybe all of them.

Pegasus noticed the helicopters and Seto knew in that moment there would be no going back inside. At this proximity, people inside had to be able to see the gun, that Pegasus was threatening Yugi on the edge of his castle. Depending on the rescue party, Seto could have been recognized, Yugi too.

And Pegasus wouldn't surrender the people he held to blame.

"Let's be honest about who was really at fault for Duelist Kingdom," Seto said, even though Mokuba tried to stop him. "Yugi won. I kept the technology from you. It's the two of us you need to keep. The three of us will go inside together."

The laughter that followed had Seto worried it would send both Pegasus and Yugi, still struggling to breathe, over the ledge. It didn't sound amused or genuine, but full of disbelief and madness, animated enough to shake their footing.

"You'll come inside with me, Seto? You too, Yugi-boy?" Pegasus said, leaning down to speak almost cheek to cheek with Yugi. "That's so sweet, trying to backpedal out of destroying my home and besmirching my wife's memory."

The helicopters came around, flying past the balcony, most likely looking for a place to land or surveying the extent of the damage. It was the first time Seto realized they might not be able to see what was happening through the smoke bellowing through the air, rising high up above their heads and collecting in the sky like clouds. But there wasn't any more time to stall. Pegasus knew this was the end. The helicopters circled in search of landing ground, loud over their heads.

"Please," Mokuba said, gaze held high and attention seemingly locked into the middle space between Pegasus and the ocean behind him. He shoved Seto to the side—hard—and sent him stumbling closer to the castle entrance. "We hear you," Mokuba continued, taking a step forward that moved him off to one side.

"Do you? Do you  _hear_  me? Then what am I telling you, Little Mokuba?"

Mokuba nodded once for a reason Seto couldn't explain and moved forward another step. He was within several yards of Pegasus by this point and Seto tried to match his step, to put himself closer to the gun.

When he looked from Mokuba back to Pegasus, he saw the helicopter directly behind him. It wasn't as steady as Seto would have liked it to be, but the man standing in the door with the gun didn't seemed phased by the slight adjustments he would have to make. Mokuba had pushed Seto out of the gun's line of fire.

If he shot Pegasus, they might both fall back.

Mokuba was going to make a grab for them.

"I'll lie for you," Mokuba said. "I'm sure Seto will too. This wasn't your fault. You were just trying to do what you thought was right. What  _was_ right."

Pegasus leaned forward, bending Yugi at the waist, but giving him a moment to take a heavy breath.

"Is that right? You'll lie for me, Kaiba-b—"

The echo of the gunshot cut the word short and Mokuba sprinted forward to grab Yugi and pull him forward, bringing them both to the stone ground rather than plummeting back over the cliff. Yugi's breaths were the next thing Seto heard, having run forward himself to get the gun out of Pegasus's hand.

There was no point in his effort.

The shot had gone in the back of his head and out his good eye.

Mokuba didn't hesitate by staring like Seto did. He worked Yugi away from Pegasus and the stream of blood that guttered down. Yugi scrambled back to Téa, who Seto had forgotten was standing there, falling into her arms in half hug, half support, while Devlin came up at their side.

It was Mokuba who looked back when Seto couldn't take his gaze off Pegasus. "The guards ran," he said, then stepped closer to Seto to make room for Wheeler and Bakura to join the semi-circle around Pegasus.

The winds beat smoke into Seto's eyes and filled his lungs. The air had grown hot from the fire and stifled every movement, slowing it down and making Seto ache. None of them could do anything but hold their attention down on the man who had held them prisoner for a year, watching the blood pool spread.

Mokuba slipped his hand into Seto's. Both of their palms were burned, and Seto was certain Mokuba felt the same stinging sensation when they squeezed at the same time. But feeling it and focusing on it were two incredibly different things.

"Good riddance," Devlin said. He nudged Pegasus's body with a foot as if to prove he was actually dead. "Bastard had it coming."

"He was in mourning," Mokuba said.

Téa nodded dully.

"He was insane," Devlin insisted.

"Eccentric," Wheeler said, and although his voice had the forced inflection of a joke, none of them managed to laugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> Don't forget to keep up with my writing schedule and drabbles on tumblr @bellamy-taft, and to check out the alternate ending to Glass, Shattered.


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